What is IP?

Intellectual Property (IP) is created when an idea takes some tangible form. IP can mean a brand, invention, design or other kind of creation and it can be legally owned.
Basicly, Intellectual Property lets people own the work they create.
There are four main types of IP rights which you can use to protect your inventions or creations: Patents, Trademarks, Designs and Copyrights:

• A Trademark is a word, symbol or design, or a combination of these, used to distinguish the goods or services of one person or organization from those of others in the marketplace. Trade-marks have come to represent not only the wares and services themselves but also the reputation of the company. They are considered as an important intellectual property (IP) asset.

Trade-marks can also comprise the emblem (logo) of the company, the shape of an object, as well as a signature.

It is interesting to know that each time that you make use of your mark in connection with your products or services, you invest in it. Conversely, if you stop using it, it will lose its strength and could even be cancelled.

• A Copyright protects original literary, musical, dramatic and artistic works. Generally it protects all creative works for the life of the author plus 50 years.

• An Industrial Design deals with the original ornamentation of any article of manufacture. This includes any shape, feature or ornamentation, the object of which produces an aesthetic effect. Functional or utilitarian features may not be the subject of an industrial design but may be the subject of a patent.

• A Patent deals with an invention, that is, a new and useful process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter or any new and useful improvement thereof. A patent is granted by the Governments giving an inventor the right to exclude others from making, using or selling his invention for a period of 20 years (normally) from the filing date, and is given in exchange for a full and complete disclosure of the invention.

Watch an official WIPO animation about “IP in Everyday Life”