Intellectual property rights and their protection is crucial for economic growth, of an individual or a business, as it fuels creativity and innovation. 

To better understand what intellectual property is, here is the basic categories you should be aware of. 

There are four main types of intellectual property:

• Copyrights
• Patents
• Trademarks
• Industrial designs

Copyright:

A copyright is the legal protection of an original creation. Copyright protects original creations of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture.

The copyright owner has the exclusive right to sell, publish, and/or reproduce any work created.

Patent:

A patent protects mostly inventions, such as machines, manufactured goods, industrial processes, and chemical compositions (i.e., drugs). It is the exclusive right granted for an invention, which offers a new way of doing something, or a new technical solution to a problem. 

Trademark:

A Trademark is a sign used to differentiate products or services of a company from those of other companies. It protects creations that identify a business value in the market, such as phrases, slogans, brand names, business names. It can also protect unique colors, schemes, sounds or even smells.

Industrial design:

An industrial design protects the visual features of an article. It may consist of three or two dimensional features, such as the shape of the article, its design, its patterns, or its color. Packages, furniture and household goods, textiles, jewelries, graphic symbols or even electronic devices can be protected by industrial design. 

Industrial design protection aims to prevent third parties from copying, selling or reproducing without the permission of the owner. 

A work can enter the public domain for a number of reasons including the following: 

• The duration of the copyright expires: In most countries, a work created by an individual is protected for the lifetime of the creator, plus 70 years. If it is created anonymously, pseudonymously, and for hire, it is protected for 95 years from the date of publication – or 120 years from the date of creation – whichever is shorter. Once the copyright expires, no intellectual property exists, so the creation enters the public domain.
• The copyright owner makes it publicly available before the copyright expires.
• The copyright owner fails to follow copyright renewal rules: The need for a copyright renewal depends on when the work was first copyrighted. Works created after 1978, are not subject to renewal registration. In 1992, copyright laws were amended, making renewal registration optional for works between 1964 and 1977. Only works originally copyrighted between 1923 and 1964 need to file a renewal application and pay a renewal fee in order to remain copyright protected. 
• The work isn’t fixed in a tangible form: Any work that hasn’t been written or recorded by its creator, isn’t protected by copyright and therefore is available for anyone to use, alter or copy.

As copyright laws may vary among countries, always have in mind that, if a work is in the public domain in one country doesn’t mean that it is everywhere in the world.

For example, the duration of copyright protection may be different among countries. Although a work may be in the public domain in the US, somewhere else in the world it may still be protected by copyright.

Copyright means “the right to copy,” therefore, only the creator – or people permitted by the creator – have the right to reproduce the work.

A work that has required significant mental activity to create, and is, therefore, considered original, automatically  becomes its creator’s intellectual property. Copyright is the legal protection of an original creation. 

Under copyright law, a work is considered original only if the author created it through independent thinking – and not duplication (copying). It is known as an Original Work of Authorship (OWA). 

To have the upper hand in any legal dispute an original work’s creator should copyright protect it, if they want to use it.

Learn what type of assets/creations you can protect with copyright.