Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Understanding Different Types Of Intellectual Property

By Kate Diaz

Property does not only comprise of tangible things like homes, cars, furniture, money, investments etc and such property are not the only type that can be safeguarded by law. Other types of property which are non- material in form also exist. They are called intellectual property and these are also secured by the law. There are three primary 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. It includes not only original writing pieces but also other types of artistic expression like melodies, videos, films etc. The copyright bestows the sole right of ownership over the work in question in addition to rights to get monetary advantages resulting from the work.

Trademarks afford intellectual property rights which aim at pre-empting replication and exploitation of graphical representations registered by a person for his own products, and they help a consumer easily identify the origin of a product. They protect the trademark holders from being economically exploited by counterfeiters.

The last intellectual property right is a patent, which is bestowed upon inventors to protect their unique and beneficial creations and inventions. It gives them exclusive right of usage and sale of their invention for a particular period.

There are some more intellectual property rights too which are rarely registered and used. To give some instances of these uncommon intellectual properties, they can be some special understanding carried forward by a particular family only; company secrets like recipes behind successful products; and location based symbols or marks to refer to a product arising from that location, like Champagne.

Though these types of intellectual property are distinct from each other there are some commonalities between the three. All three are fully admissible under the law and the rightful holder can take legal action to enforce his right and claim compensation for any misuse.

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