What is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual, or intangible, assets include any products of the human intellectsuch as inventions, discoveries, technologies, creations, developments, or other forms of expressing an ideawhether or not the subject matter is protectable under the laws governing the different forms of intellectual property. Intellectual property is that subset of intellectual assets that can be legally protected, and includes patents, plant variety protection certificates, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets. Just as our legal system provides rights and protection for owners of real property such as real estate, it also provides rights and protection to owners of intellectual property (intangible property). The intangible right to intellectual property can be bought, sold, leased, rented, or otherwise transferred between parties. The transfer of intellectual property rights can affect the marketability of a product, as well as the selection of a producer or manufacturer of a product; therefore, the
The term “intellectual property” generally relates to four distinct kinds of legal protection: patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Each kind of intellectual property is governed by its own body of federal and/or state law. The kinds of things that are protected by intellectual property law include scientific and engineering inventions (including new methods and apparatus), distinctive marks for identifying products or institutions, computer software, “know-how,” and forms of expression that are affixed in tangible form (i.e., books, movies, artistic works of art).
Intellectual property is any new and useful process, machine, composition of matter, life form, article of manufacture, software, trademark, copyrighted work, or tangible research property. Examples include new or improved devices, circuits, chemical compounds, drugs, genetically engineered biological organisms, antibodies, clones, cell lines, data sets, software, Web-based tools, musical processes, or unique and novel uses of existing inventions.
Intellectual Property are intangible assets. They may include copyrights, patents, logos, Web URLs, trademarks, books, music, art, film. They can be found almost everywhere – in creative works like books, films, records, music, art and software. Much of what we see and use on the Internet includes or represents some form of intellectual property.
