Intellectual Property Rights – Understanding The Basics

Intellectual property rights, in general, are an assortment of rights granted to people who own unique inventions that are the outcome of creativity and intellect. These inventions can be in the scientific, literary, artistic, or industrial sectors. They can include things like technological innovations, paintings, research documents, gaming software, musical compositions, and product brands, among others.

Intellectual property rights are given to scientists, painters, authors, composers, or creators of any work so they can have control over the exploitation of their works. These rights prevent the unrestrained ability of others to copy the works of creators who may be deprived of rewards and incentives because of piracy. And while some rights require registration (such as patents), others are automatically granted upon the creation of work (such as copyrights).

Copyrights provide protection to original works of authorship such as literary works, musical works, graphical works, computer software, or video gaming software which have been translated into a tangible or physical medium. As previously mentioned, copyrights are automatic rights, which means that a person doesn’t have to apply at the U.S. Copyright Office to have it.

On the other hand, patent is a type of intellectual property right that is granted by the Federal government to safeguard your inventions from being illegally used or sold by others. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is the one that issues patents to non-obvious inventions such as business processes, designs, marketing strategies, and the like.

Trade marks are distinctive indicators that individuals and companies use to communicate their products to consumers and to differentiate the product from their competitors. Examples of trade marks include brand names, logos, symbols, phrases, designs, or a combination of any of these.

And finally, trade secrets are intellectual property rights provide protection to a formula, recipe, or any other secret information that gives businesses a competitive edge. Companies can exercise their right to trade secrets by including non-disclosure clauses in their employee contracts.

This is just an overview of the principal intellectual property rights. These rights are extremely important since they make sure that it is the inventor of the intellectual property who gains credit for his creation.