Introducing IP
If you're new to intellectual property, it can seem like a complex and bewildering subject. Use this page to get an overview of the basics.
What is intellectual property?
Intellectual property - IP - means your ideas and knowledge and the legal rights they give you. Sometimes these are referred to as intellectual property rights or IPRs.
The law protects different types of ideas in different ways. IP includes :
- patents - these protect technical and functional ideas, "inventions", typically new products and processes. A patent protects the way something works rather than how it looks.
- trade marks – these are signs (such as words, logos, colour schemes and the like) which distinguish one person's products from everybody else's. You get certain rights in a trade mark automatically, simply by using it. You can also register a trade mark to get stronger protection.
- design rights – these protect the way a product looks. Some of them are automatic when you create a new design, but a design can also be registered for stronger protection.
- copyright – this arises automatically whenever you express your ideas in a physical form, for instance by writing or painting. Copyright protects the exact form of what you've created rather than the idea behind it; it can exist, for example, in an article or book or leaflet, a drawing, a photograph, a sculpture or a web page.
- confidential information / technical know-how – this is information which you know but have kept secret. The law allows you to take action against anyone who acquires that information, or uses it, in breach of confidence.
If you've come up with a good idea, it may be protectable in one or more of these ways. We can advise which is the best form of protection for you, and tell you how to secure and to use that protection so as to strengthen your business.
For background information on intellectual property, you might like to read "The Business of Invention" by Peter Bissell & Graham Barker (ISBN 0951-3856-31). This book is a guide for inventors and innovators about how to exploit good ideas commercially even in the early stages when resources are limited. It is approved by the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys.
