Intellectual Property

With Your Legal GP

Intellectual property is something that you have created using your mind. Having the ability to create something worth protecting by law through your own intellectual abilities should not go unnoticed. You can protect your creation as it can stop others from stealing or copying your creation.

Four Main Categories of Intellectual Property

• Patents: Patents are a form of IP that allow for the protection of an invention, meaning that permission will be needed to make, use, import or sell the invention. The invention might be tangible or intangible however it needs to be novel, inventive and have some industrial value to be able to be protected by patent.
• Trademarks: Trademarks are typically signs that distinguishes one professional entity from another. It can be an image, word or phrase, either single or combined. The purpose of a trademark is to provide consumers with an identity of the product.
• Copyright: Copyright relates to intangible property of cultural goods such as authorship, musicals, artistic and dramatic expressions. These original works must be secured in a tangible form such as a book, film, painting or screen play to be protected under copyright. Copyright is free to all.
• Trade Secrets: Trade secrets are confidential information that might be sold or licenced. They must be commercially valuable and known by a limited group of persons. Most businesses will have trade secrets, and these might be protected by confidentiality clauses in employment contracts.

Recognition of your ideas and creations creates a form of rights under the law which allow you to enjoy the fruits of your labour!

Ed Sheeran copyright case example