Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The most well-known types are copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets.

Intellectual Property Protection:

Intellectual Property Protection is protection for inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols, names, and images created by the mind. Entrepreneurs and business owners need to understand the basics of intellectual property (IP) law to best protect their hard-earned creations and ideas from unfair competition. Four major types of IP protection include:

Patent: It is used to protect inventive ideas or processes – things that are new, useful and nonobvious. Patents are what most often come to mind when thinking of IP protection. Patents are also used to protect newly engineered plant species or strains, as well. There are three type of patents viz. Utility, Design, Plant.

Trademark: A trademark is unlike a patent in that it protects words, phrases, symbols, sounds, smells and color schemes. Trademarks are often considered assets that describe or otherwise identify the source of underlying products or services that a company provides, such as the MGM lion roar, the Home Depot orange color scheme, the Intel Inside logo, and so on.

Copyright: It do not protect ideas, but rather the manner in which ideas are expressed (“original works of authorship”) - written works, art, music, architectural drawings, or even programming code for software (most evident nowadays in video game entertainment). With certain exceptions, copyrights allow the owner of the protected materials to control reproduction, performance, new versioning or adaptations, public performance and distribution of the works.

Trade Secret: Trade secrets are proprietary procedures, systems, devices, formulas, strategies or other information that is confidential and exclusive to the company using them. They act as competitive advantages for the business.

Question to Consider: 

1. What are intellectual property rights (IPR)?
2. What are the 4 types of intellectual property?
3. How do you protect your intellectual property?