Types Of Intellectual Property

Intellectual property has been categorized into four main kinds namely patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.

Copyrights deal with protection of original creative works. They offer legal safeguards for original works of creativity like novels, films, music, and so on. They permit the owners to exclusively use many forms of their idea in different mediums with sole legal rights of replication, adaptation, sale etc for a certain period of time. In most nations, a copyright continues even after the author’s death for 50 years and any unauthorized usage is actionable.

Patents are lawful and certified rights that allow inventors to stop others from manufacturing or marketing their invention. Typically they apply to scientific theories, inventions in the field of technology and even biological discoveries. The protection cover provided by a patent in most countries is for a span of 20 years, after which the invention ceases to be the exclusive property of the inventor.

Trade secrets

Trade secrets are certain confidential pieces of information that help a firm to gain an edge over its rivals in the market. Trade secrets can be anything ranging from a new software to the recipe of a food item and even information such as contact numbers of most important clients. Usually, trade secrets are a confidential matter and are zealously guarded by the company without any involvement of a government agency. The most common means of protecting trade secrets is by confining the information to only a few key executives and not everyone, or by depositing it safely in a bank together with other valuable items and papers.

Trademarks, on the other hand, include words, designs or logos that are associated with the firm on the whole or its products and services, which distinguish them from the competition. Trademarks act as an immediate recall of the company in the consumer’s mind and give rise to a specific brand identity. Usually trademarks hold good for 10 years after which a renewal is often necessary.