January 27, 2010

Types Of Intellectual Property

When we talk about property, it is not only the physical things such as homes, structures, vehicles, currency etc that are protected by law. There are many other types of non-material property known as intellectual property that have been recognized under the law and granted protection against infringement. There are three main types of property which come under this classification: copyrights, trademarks and patents.

Copyrights are intellectual property pertaining to rights of the creator over his or her original piece of work. This right may be given for songs, films, videos and other forms of artistic expressions and not just the written or published material. Under copyright law, the creator of the work gets several rights which include monetary rights to income generated from the work and acknowledgement as sole owner of that work.

Trademarks on the other hand are intellectual property that pertains to protection given to certain text, graphical representations and other marks that differentiate the source of one product from the other. With this legal shield, trademark is safeguarded from replication by unscrupulous elements who wish to misuse established brands.

The third kind of intellectual property right, known as patent, safeguards the rights of inventors in their novel and beneficial invention. Patents are valid for a predetermined period within which the holder can enforce his exclusive right to sale and use of his invention.

Some other, less commonly enforced intellectual property rights are also provided for by the law. Some examples of other kinds are traditional knowledge cultivated by natives of a specific area that is distinctive only to that area; trade secrets that include business secrets, for instance, KFC’s recipe; and geographical indicators that are a variation of trademarks used for merchandise arising from a specific part of the world, for instance Champagne.

While all the three types of intellectual property mentioned above are different from each other there are also some commonalities. All three are fully admissible under the law and the rightful holder can take legal recourse to establish his right and claim compensation for any violation.

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Filed under Work From Home by Kate Diaz

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