Intellectual property
The type of property that is familiar to most people comprises physical objects. People own clothes, cars, houses and land. Intellectual property on the other hand, is the product of someone's mental efforts. Its value lies in its appeal to others who might wish to use it or the goods it describes.
National and international laws and conventions recognise the product of a person's mental efforts as an intellectual property right (IPR). Thus an individual's creativity and innovation can be owned in much the same way that they can own physical property. Legal systems recognise that dissemination of creative endeavours can benefit society and stimulate further creative activity. IPRs therefore allow originators to control access by others to the products of their creativity and thus benefit from it. It will often not be possible to control this access and benefit from it unless the intellectual property rights have been applied for and granted, but some IP protection such as copyright arises automatically, without any registration, as soon as there is a record in some form of what has been created.
The main statutory intellectual property rights cover two main areas: industrial property, concerning patents for inventions, trade marks and industrial designs and copyright.
- Patents are concerned with inventions producing a technical result - of new and improved products, processes and uses that are capable of industrial application.
- Trade Marks are concerned with brand identity - principally of goods and services They can be distinctive words, marks or other features, the purpose of which is to make a distinction in the mind of a customer between different traders, products and services.
- Designs are concerned with the appearance of a product - of the whole or a part of a product - features of, in particular, shape, configuration, contours, texture or materials of the product itself not dictated by functional considerations.
- Copyright is concerned with original literary works such as novels, poems and plays, musical and artistic works such as musical compositions, sound recordings and TV and radio broadcasts, software, multimedia films, drawings, maps, charts, plans, paintings, photographs and sculptures and works of architecture. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs.
It should also be noted that intellectual property also encompasses such areas as know how, trade secrets, protection of plant varieties etc. It is often the case that more than one type of intellectual property right can be applied to the same creation.