Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Kinds Of Intellectual Property

By Anthony Diaz

Property does not just comprise of tangible things like homes, cars, furniture, money, investments etc and such assets are not the only type that can be safeguarded by law. Other kinds of property which are intangible in form also exist. They are termed intellectual property and these are also protected by the law. Copyrights, trademarks and patents are the three main categories of intellectual property.

Copyright is an intellectual property safeguard that is granted by law to an author or any other type of creator for an original composition or development. It includes not just original literary pieces but also other forms of artistic expression like music, videos, films etc. It provides the owners with several rights including economic and moral rights in addition to the right of being known as the creator of the work.

On the other hand, trademarks accord the one who has registered it, the protection over certain symbols, words or marks which point to the creator or origin of products to thwart replication and misuse. They protect the trademark owners from being financially exploited by unscrupulous elements.

The third kind of intellectual property right is the patent, which is granted to inventors to safeguard their inventions and creations. It gives them exclusive privilege of use and sale of their work for a specific span.

Some other, less commonly found intellectual property rights are also provided for by the law. To give some examples of these rare intellectual properties, they can be some special understanding carried forward by a specific family only; business secrets like recipes behind popular products; and location based symbols or marks to refer to a product which comes from that place, like Champagne.

While all the three kinds of intellectual property discussed above are different from each other there are also some commonalities. All three are fully protected by the law and the rightful owner can take legal action to enforce his right and claim reparation for any misuse.

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