Foreword By The Editor

The following excellent article by Lani Garner outlines the four different, and often misunderstood, types of intellectual property. It is important that all managers (and above) in the commercial world, as well as self-employed professionals, understand them in order to always be sure where they stand in relation to their business and the law. More information can be found by following the links in About The Author at the end.
Mike Alexander
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Intellectual Property

The term ‘intellectual property’ (IP) covers a number of legal monopolies over creations of ideas, both artistic and commercial, and corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, proprietors have sole rights to several intangibles such as musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries, and inventions; and words. phrases, symbols, and designs. There are four main types of intellectual property as can be seen in the following paragraphs.

Copyrights

Copyrights give lawful rights to both unpublished and published original works. They provide legal safeguards for original creative works like novels, films, musical scores, and so on. They also give legal rights to a creator to use his or her original work in addition to reproducing, giving away, showing or even selling it with complete discretion within the time decided by law. In most nations, a copyright lasts for fifty years even after the author’s death and any unlawful use within this time span is considered an offence.

Patents

Patents are lawful and registered rights that allow inventors to prevent others from producing or promoting their invention. They offer protection not only for technological breakthroughs and scientific theories but also for new discoveries in the field of biology. In most countries, patent protection is available for a limited period of 20 years and the inventor loses his sole ownership over the invention after the expiry of this time span.

Trade Secrets

Trade secrets are those classified pieces of information that enable a company to gain an edge over its competitors in the market. A trade secret could be anything ranging from a customer database with the contact information of its most valuable customers to a unique recipe or even some secret research. Usually, trade secrets are an internal matter and are zealously guarded by the company without any intervention from a government agency. The common steps taken by a company to safeguard trade secrets include confining the information to a select handful of managers, or even keeping it under lock and key in some bank vault.

Trademarks

Trademarks, on the other hand, include one or more words, designs or logos that are associated with the company as a whole or its products, which distinguish them from the competition. Trademarks develop a unique brand identity that helps the customers recall or identify the company on noticing the trademark. Mostly trademarks have a ten year validity after which a renewal is often required.

About The Author

Discover more about Trademark Registration Singapore and discover how does an Intellectual Property protection increase the net worth of your business very fast. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service.