Intellectual property (IP) is a number of distinct types of legal monopolies over creations of the idea, both artistic and commercial, and the related areas of law. Under intellectual property law, proprietors are given particular sole rights to a sort of intangibles, like musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries, and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Trade secrets, copyrights, patents, and trademarks are four main types of intellectual property.
Copyrights deal with protection of original creative works. They are used to protect the ownership of works like poems, songs, stories, films etc. It gives legal rights to the creator to use the expression of his or her idea in addition to reproducing, giving away, showing or even selling it with complete discretion within the time stipulated by law. The owner has an authority over his creation for more than 50 years, which is valid even after his demise and any infringement of the work within this period is actionable.
Patents are legal and registered rights that allow creators to prevent others from manufacturing or promoting their invention. They can usually be applied to cases such as significant biological discoveries, new theories in science and technical inventions. The legal cover offered by a patent in most countries is for a period of 20 years, after which the invention ceases to be the exclusive property of the inventor.
Trade secrets are those classified pieces of information that help a firm to gain an edge over its competitors in the market. Trade secrets can be anything ranging from software algorithms to the recipe of a food item and even information such as contact numbers of most important customers. In most cases, trade secrets are issues pertaining to internal management of the firm, which do not call for any type of government intervention. The usual way of protecting trade secrets is by confining the information to only a few key executives and not everyone, or by depositing it safely in a bank along with other valuable items and documents.
Trademarks include words, logos or designs that are used in connection with a specific brand or product in order to separate it from products of rivals. Trademarks develop a brand identity that helps the customers recall or identify the company on seeing the trademark. Usually, a trademark certification remains valid for 10 years after which it has to be renewed.
Discover more about Trademark Registration Singapore and discover how does an Intellectual Property protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.
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Tags: business idea protection, business value, copyright, ideas protection, Intellectual property, IP law, Legal, patents, protecting business ideas, trademarks