Types Of Intellectual Property

The number of various types of legal monopolies over creations of idea, both artistic and commercial, and the related fields of law is called Intellectual property (IP). Under intellectual property law, proprietors are granted certain exclusive rights to a sort of intangible assets, like musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, breakthroughs, and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Intellectual property has been divided into four main categories namely patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.

Copyrights protect original creations, either published or yet to be published. They safeguard the ownership of pieces like musical scores, poetry, movies, novels etc. By using them, the owner can legally protect the expression of an original idea for a stipulated time span, during which only he or she has the authority to reproduce it, allow its adaptation, show it to people, or sell it. In most countries, a copyright survives for fifty years even after the author’s death and any unauthorized use within this time span is liable to prosecution.

Patents are certified rights that safeguard the creations of the inventors by disallowing other people from producing or marketing their invention. They provide safety not only for technological breakthroughs and scientific theories but also for discoveries such as biological ones. The legal cover offered by a patent in most countries is for a period of 20 years, after which the invention ceases to be the sole property of the patent owner.

Trade secrets are certain confidential pieces of information that enable a company to gain an edge over its competitors in the market. A trade secret could be anything ranging from a customer database with the contact information of most treasured customers to a unique recipe or even some secret research. More often than not, trade secrets are matters relating to in house management of the company, which do not call for any type of government intervention. Two most commonly used ways of protecting a trade secret are keeping it in a bank locker or keeping it confined to a limited number of executives, so that it is not accessible to many people and therefore remains secure.

Trademarks, on the other hand, are words, designs or symbols that are related to the company on the whole or its products, which act as identifiers of its brand. Trademarks act as a quick recall of the manufacturer in the customer’s mind and create a particular brand identity. Usually trademarks have a ten year validity after which a renewal is often necessary.

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