Intellectual property (IP) is a list of distinct types of legal monopolies over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, proprietors are granted particular exclusive rights to a sort of intangible assets, like musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries, and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Intellectual property has been categorized into four main kinds namely patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.
Copyrights provide legal rights to published and unpublished original works. They offer legal protection for original works of creativity like novels, films, musical scores, and so on. They allow the owners to exclusively use several forms of their idea in different mediums with sole legal authority over reproduction, adaptation, sale etc for a certain period of time. In a majority of countries, a copyright is valid even after the author\'s demise for 50 years and any unsolicited usage is considered illegal.
Patents are registered rights that protect the creations of the inventors by disallowing other people from producing or selling their invention. They offer safety not just for technological breakthroughs and scientific theories but also for new discoveries in the field of biology. The legal cover provided by a patent in most nations is for a span of 20 years, after which the invention no longer remains the exclusive property of the inventor.
Trade secrets are undisclosed information that can be used by the company to defeat its competitors. Trade secrets can be anything ranging from a new software to the recipe of a particular dish and even details like contact numbers of most important customers. In most cases, trade secrets are issues pertaining to internal management of the firm, which do not involve any kind of government interference. The most common means of securing trade secrets is by allowing access to only a few important executives and not everyone, or by depositing it safely in a bank together with other valuable items and documents.
Trademarks include words, logos and graphics that identify a specific brand or company and differentiate it from the rival brands. Trademarks act as a quick recall of the manufacturer in the consumer\'s mind and give rise to a specific brand identity. Generally, a registered trademark can be renewed after a span of 10 years.
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