Four Main Types Of Intellectual Property

By Author: Shweta Singh
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What is Intellectual Property?

When someone has a novel idea, and they want to protect it from being used by others, the best way to secure it is to seek the legal protection of that intellectual property. Intellectual Property is a novel invention of the human intellect, protected by the law from unauthorized use by others. It has a vast domain that is said to be the collection of ideas and concepts conceived of and developed by the adviser, employee, worker, or by your intellect.

It is a non-physical property owned by an individual or a corporation that the inventor should protect from use without the inventor's consent. Intellectual Property is the intellect that differentiates you from your competitor. Intellectual Property is sometimes known as 'the Creation of mind' or 'the product of original thought'.

Basically, Intellectual property has four types: Patents, Trademarks, Copyright, and Trade secrets.

PATENTS: A Patent is the most common type of intellectual property property that comes to an individual’s mind when he thinks about Intellectual Property. Patents generally use to prevent an ...
... invention from being copied, sold, and used by an unauthorized user, But for a limited period of time. A patent is a legal document that is given to an inventor by the Patent Office to protect the invention. When a property owner holds a Patent he is protected from unlawful making, using, and selling of the invention.

There are some basic conditions for granting a patent:

The invention is novel, the invention should not be in existence.
The invention must not be non-obvious, It must be a significant improvement of the previous invention, not with some minor changes.
The invention must be genuine, it should not be for any illegal work.

2. COPYRIGHT: Copyright law safeguards the rights of the original work of authorship which might include literary works, music, art, and more. Among these rights are reproduction rights, derivative works rights, the right to distribute copies, and the right to perform and display the work. The main objective of copyright is to encourage and motivate the author to the creation of new work and make that available for the enjoyment of others.

Copyright must have tangibility, you can't copyright an idea. The author automatically owns the copyright when they create an original work of authorship (OWA).

3. TRADEMARK: Trademarks are often closely associated with Brands. Trademarks are said to be a sign that allows customers to identify a particular brand and differentiates it from another. A trademark may cover an entire group of products, whereas a patent may only protect one product.

The use of a trademark provides indefinite protection from trademark infringement, while patents and copyrights expire. Trademark is not required to be registered, but registering can offer additional advantages. Some examples of trademarks are logos of various companies like Facebook, KFC, Star bucks, etc.

4. TRADE SECRET: Information that provides an enterprise with a competitive edge and is unknown to others can be protected as a trade secret. The formula for Coca-Cola, Big Mac special sauce, and KFC Chicken recipe are some of the best examples of Trade Secret. This is vital information to these companies, this is their most treasured asset and this asset is their trade secret.

Trade secrets have no expiration period, as it allows the company to keep its invention secret and protected forever.