What is Intellectual Property?

In general terms intellectual property, or IP, is probably best thought of as creations of the mind that are given the legal rights often associated with physical property. The owner of IP can control and be rewarded for its use, which encourages further innovation and creativity to the benefit of us all.

In some cases, IP gives rise to protection for ideas but in other areas there will have to be more elaboration of an idea before protection can arise. It will often not be possible to protect IP and gain IP rights (or IPRs) unless they 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 four main types of IP are:

• patents for inventions - new and improved products and processes that are capable of industrial application
  
• trademarks for brand identity - of goods and services allowing distinctions to be made between different traders
  
• design registrations for product appearance - of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture or materials of the product itself or its ornamentation
  
• copyright for material - literary and artistic material, music, films, sound recordings and broadcasts, including software and multimedia