For people in your position, I like Van Lindberg's book, Intellectual Property and Open Source: A Practical Guide to Protecting Code.

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/intellectual-property-a...

It will help you understand the relevant parts of the law (copyright, patent, trademark) as well as helping to differentiate between various types of Open Source licenses.

For anyone who wants to learn more about the nature of IP: Patents, Trade Secrets, Trademarks, Copyrights, Licensing, I recommend this book: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596517960.

I read it about 6 months ago, it will give you some clarity of thought about these matters. And apart from the odd gratuitous computer metaphor it is quite minimal -- you could probably use it as a reference if necessary.

This book has 2 chapters on patents: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596517960

I read the first half of the book and found it enlightening.