This document discusses the common pitfalls of do-it-yourself intellectual property for patents and trademarks. For patents, it notes that provisional applications do not constitute actual patents and failure to convert them in a year means losing filing date benefits. It also discusses improperly describing inventions or claims. For trademarks, it warns about selecting descriptive or infringing marks, meeting USPTO requirements, filing the most detailed version of a mark instead of separating elements, and failing to complete or maintain registrations.