Although something may not be protected by copyright, it may be protected by other forms of intellectual property rights.

Besides copyright there are also patents, trademarks, service marks and trade secrets.¹

Patents are given to inventors who develop new products or processes.
Trademarks can last forever and protect things like logos, phrases and words used to distinguish and advertise products.
Service Marks are similar to trademarks but are used by firms to distinguish and advertise services.
Trade Secrets are held by firms and individuals. In the previous page we saw that recipes can not be copyrighted, but the ingredients of Coca-Cola or the KFC Original Recipe, for instance, can be protected in-house with anti-espionage measures and legally by non-disclosure agreements, or non-competitive contract clauses enjoined on employees.

1 Read more at Trademark, Patent, or Copyright? (US Patent and Trademark Office)