Intellectual property (IP) is a number of various types of legal monopolies over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners have sole rights to some intangible assets such as 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Copyrights protect original works, either published or unpublished. They provide legal safeguards for original works of creativity like novels, movies, musical scores, and so on. They allow the users to exclusively use several forms of their creation in different mediums with sole legal authority over replication, adaptation, sale etc for a certain span of time. The owner has a claim over his creation for more than 50 years, which is valid even after his death and any infringement of the creation within this time is actionable.
Patents on the other hand are lawful and official rights that allow an inventor to prevent others from manufacturing or selling his or her invention. They provide safety not just for technological breakthroughs and scientific theories but also for new discoveries in the field of biology. In most countries, patent protection is available for a limited period of 20 years and the inventor loses his exclusive rights over the invention following the end of this time span.
Trade secrets are undisclosed ideas and information that can be used by the company to defeat its competitors. A trade secret can be anything from a confidential report to a cooking recipe, or a database containing names and contact information of high profile clients. Typically, trade secrets are an internal matter and are zealously guarded by the company without any intervention from a government agency. Two methods used most often to protect a trade secret are keeping it in a bank vault or confining it to a restricted number of officials, so that it is not within reach of several people and thus stays secure.
Trademarks, on the other hand, include one or more words, designs or symbols that are related to the firm on the whole or its products and services, which act as identifiers of its brand. Trademarks develop an exclusive brand identity for a firm and generate quick recall in the minds of customers. Mostly trademarks have a ten year validity after which a renewal is often necessary.
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