Intellectual Property

 What is Intellectual Property?

  Intellectual Property is someone’s idea, invention, creation, etc, that can be protected by law from being copied by someone else. 

 Intellectual property is a term used to describe works of the mind—such as art, books, films, formulas, designs, works of art, concepts, software, brand names, logo, symbol, any unique name, inventions, music, and processes—that are distinct and owned or created by a single person or group.

  Intellectual property is protected through copyright, patent, trademark, and trade secret laws. 

 Copyright law protects authored works such as art, books, film, and music. 

 Patent law protects inventions.

  Trade secret law helps safeguard the information that is critical to an organization’s success (any confidential information).

  The owners of Intellectual Property are granted certain exclusive rights through which they use their property without any disturbance and can prevent the misuse of their property.

Copyrights:

  Copyright is a legal right of the owner of intellectual property.

  Simply, copyright is the right to copy. It legally protects the author’s work.

  A Copyright provides the exclusive publication, distribution, and usage rights for the author(the original creator of the work).

  Original creators of the product and anyone they give authorization to are the only ones with exclusive right to reproduce the work.

Key points:

  Copyrights law protects creators of original material from unauthorized duplication or use. 

 For an original work to be protected by copyright laws, it has to be in tangible form (capable of being touched or having physical existence).

  In the U.S. (United States), the work of creators is protected by copyright laws until 70 years after their death.