Intellectual Property And Its Types

Intellectual property (IP) is a list of certain types of legal monopolies over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the related fields of law. Under intellectual property law, proprietors have exclusive rights to some intangible assets such as musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries, and inventions; and words. phrases, symbols, and designs. There are four main types of intellectual property - copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets.

Copyrights protect original creations, either published or yet to be published. They protect the ownership of works of art like musical scores, poetry, films, novels etc. By making use of copyrights, the owner can legally guard the expression of an idea for a certain time span, during which only he or she has the right to reproduce it, permit its adaptation, exhibit it to people, or sell it off. The owner has a claim over his work for more than 50 years, which remains even after his demise and any unlawful use of the creation within this time is actionable.

Patents are lawful and registered rights that allow creators to prevent others from producing or marketing their invention. They are usually applicable to cases such as important biological discoveries, scientific theories and technical inventions. In most nations, patent cover is available for a restricted period of 20 years and the inventor loses his sole ownership over the invention after the expiry of this period.

Trade secrets are certain confidential pieces of information that help 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 a confidential report. Typically, trade secrets are an internal matter and are strongly guarded by the firm without any intervention from the government. Two most commonly used ways of protecting a trade secret are keeping it in a bank locker or keeping it confined to a restricted number of officials, so that it is not within reach of a lot of people and thus remains secure.

Trademarks include words, logos or graphics that are used in the context of a particular brand or commodity in order to distinguish it from products of competitors. Trademarks act as a quick recall of the company in the consumer’s mind and give rise to a particular brand identity. Usually, a registered trademark can get a renewal after a span of 10 years.

Discover more about Trademark Registration Singapore and discover how does an Intellectual Property protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.

Published by: Janet Garner on October 26th, 2009 | Filed under Intellectual Property



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