Patents give inventors sole rights over their inventions for 17 years to prevent theft and allow for trademarking and copyrighting. Copyright protects creative works of authors, artists, and composers so others cannot steal ideas or works. Trademarks are symbols or words associated with specific companies or products, like McDonald's M or Nike's swoosh. A monopoly exists when one business controls the entire market for a product or service, which can be bad for competition but Microsoft has become a near monopoly in software. Taxes include income taxes on personal earnings, property taxes based on land and building values, sales taxes added by sellers, and gift taxes on property transferred as gifts while alive.