The top portion describes the scenario while the bottom portion are the questions I need help answering. The company would be based in the United States

You and your friend have been talking and have come up with a new app that will be the next great mobile device app. It will be a hub app that connects with many of your other apps. For example, you can put in an area you will visit and it will tie in with your apps to get directions and tell you all of the restaurants, shopping and entertainment opportunities in the area. Clicking on restaurant will then connect you to Open Table to check reservations or clicking on an entertainment event will then connect you with Stub Hub to check for tickets. Your friend is the technical person and you are the business person. You have decided to form a limited liability company with each of you as the founding members. Now you are trying how to protect your intellectual property and determine how to raise the equity capital you need for your new business. Please discuss how you would go about protecting your intellectual property (and specifically, which type of intellectual property protection) and how you would go about obtaining equity capital navigating through the securities laws