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 areas of law. Under intellectual property law, proprietors are granted certain sole rights to a sort of intangibles, like musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries, and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Copyrights, trademarks, patents and trade secrets are four main kinds of intellectual property.
Copyrights give lawful rights to published and unpublished original creations. They safeguard the owner’s rights over works of art like musical compositions, poetry, movies, novels etc. They permit the users to exclusively use various forms of their creation in one or the other medium with sole legal authority over reproduction, adaptation, sale etc for a certain span of time. The owner has a claim over his work for more than 50 years, which is valid even after his demise and any unlawful use of the creation within this time is treated as an offence.
Patents are certified rights that protect the creations of the inventors by preventing unscrupulous individuals from producing or selling their invention. They are usually applicable to cases such as important biological discoveries, scientific theories and technological breakthroughs. The protection cover offered by a patent in most countries is for a period of two decades, after which the invention no longer remains the exclusive property of the inventor.
Trade secrets are those classified ideas or information that a company can use for an advantage over its rivals. A trade secret can be anything from a tabulation chart to a cooking recipe, or a database containing addresses and phone numbers of high profile clients. Usually, trade secrets are not controlled by the state machinery but by strict internal rules and by-laws of the particular firm. Two methods used most often to protect a trade secret are storing it in a bank locker or confining it to a limited number of executives, so that it is not within reach of a lot of people and hence stays secure.
Trademarks, on the other hand, include one or more words, designs or logos that are associated with the company on the whole or its products, which act as identifiers of its brand. Trademarks develop a brand identity that helps the customers recall or identify the company on seeing the trademark. Usually trademarks have a ten year validity after which a renewal is often required.
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