Copyrights, Patents, Designs, Trade Marks...
Intellectual property, often known as IP, allows people to own their creativity and innovation in the same way that they can own physical property. The owner of IP can control and be rewarded for its use, and this encourages further innovation and creativity to the benefit of us all.

In some cases IP gives rise to protection for ideas but in other areas there will have to be more elaboration of an idea before protection can arise. It will often not be possible to protect IP and gain IP rights (or IPRs) unless they have been applied for and granted, but some IP protection such as copyright arises automatically, without any registration, as soon as there is a record in some form of what has been created. The four main types of IP are:

Patents: for inventions - new and improved products and processes that are capable of industrial application.

A patent gives an inventor the right for a limited period to stop others from making, using or selling an invention without the permission of the inventor. It is a deal between an inventor and the state in which the inventor is allowed a short term monopoly in return for allowing the invention to be made public.


 

Trade Marks: for brand identity - of goods and services allowing distinctions to be made between different traders.

A trade mark is any sign which can distinguish the goods and services of one trader from those of another. A sign includes words, logos, colours, slogans, three-dimensional shapes and sometimes sounds and gestures.


 

Designs: for product appearance - of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture or materials of the product itself or its ornamentation.

A design refers to the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture or materials of the product or its ornamentation. In the United Kingdom designs are protected by three legal rights; registered designs; unregistered design right; and artistic copyright.


 

Copyright: for material - literary and artistic material, music, films, sound recordings and broadcasts, including software and multimedia.

Copyright gives the creators of a wide range of material, such as literature, art, music, sound recordings, films and broadcasts, economic rights enabling them to control use of their material in a number of ways, such as by making copies, issuing copies to the public, performing in public, broadcasting and use on-line. It also gives moral rights to be identified as the creator of certain kinds of material, and to object to distortion or mutilation of it.


 

Other Intellectual Property: Although copyright, designs, patents and trade marks provide a range of IP protection, there are a number of other forms of IP and subjects related to IP:

rights in performances for performers and those making recordings of performances
protection for trade secrets under confidentiality agreements
database right for some types of database (other types may be protected by copyright)
protection for semi-conductor topographies
plant breeders' rights in plant varieties
protection for geographical indications of origin
protection of conditional access technology for broadcasts and other transmission
protection against unfair competition under "passing off" law
publication right for first publication of material in which copyright has expired
protection against circumvention of copy protection devices