Intellectual Property Overview

Intellectual Property Overview

Intellectual property (IP) refers to the legal protection given to creations of the mind such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, symbols, names, and images used in commerce. These creations can be protected under patent laws, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, which form the four main areas of IP law.

Patents

A patent is a limited duration monopoly granted to an inventor or their assignee for the invention covered by the claims. It permits the owner to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing the claimed invention without permission. There are three types of patents based on what the invention does: utility patents for useful machines, processes, or compositions of matter; design patents for new, original, and ornamental designs for manufactured goods; and plant patents for new varieties of plants created through sexual reproduction or tuber propagation.

Copyrights

Copyright protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. The copyright owner has the right to reproduce the work, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, perform the work publicly, display the work publicly, or perform the work via digital audio transmission. However, there's no such thing as a copyright on ideas. Rather, you get a copyright on your expression of those ideas.

Trademarks

Trademarks help consumers distinguish among products and services that come from different sources. A business can register its brand name, logo, slogan, or any other distinctive word, phrase, symbol, or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of another. The owner of a registered trademark may sue for infringement when someone uses it without authorization.

Trade Secrets

While patents, trademarks, and copyrights are registered with government agencies, trade secrets have no formal registration process. They're simply ideas whose owners want to keep secret. Unlike other forms of IP, they don't expire unless they're revealed.

In summary, IP rights are territorial rights, meaning that they only apply within individual countries, regions, and economic unions. Although some agreements between nations attempt to standardize IP rules, substantial differences remain between legal systems.