IP

(INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY)

What is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works,

and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.

Intellectual property is divided into two categories: Industrial property, which includes

inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source;

and Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays,

films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and

sculptures, and architectural designs.

Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances,

producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and

television programs.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (IP) is about far more than just Patents. There are four main

types of IP rights which you can use to protect your inventions or creations.  You may also

choose to protect your IP in other ways, for example, by using a confidentiality agreement.

PATENT:

Patents protect what makes things work - like what makes a wheel turn or the chemical

formula of your favorite fizzy drink.

TRADE MARKS:

Trade marks are symbols that distinguish goods and services in the marketplace - like logos

and brand names.

DESIGNS:

Designs are what something looks like-from the shape of a take-away cup to the body of jet.

COPYRIGHT:

Copyright is an automatic right which applies when the work is fixed, that is written or

recorded in some way.