What is intellectual property?
A broad description of sets of non-physical assets legally owned by a single person or a company that they can use in the present time or the future is called intellectual property. The non-physical assets are intangible assets. The central concept of these intellectual properties is that a particular product of any person or a company should have all the rights that a physical property has. We call these physical properties tangible assets. Most companies and authorities have strict protection measures for both intangible and tangible assets.
Understand the concept:
Because of the 21st century’s increasing knowledge about the economy, companies spend more than enough resources to protect their intellectual property. Protecting intellectual properties require vast investment, brainpower, and time. Authorities invest in their intellectual properties to prevent any stealing.
Intellectual property owners invest time and brainpower to extract the true value from their property and prevent others from stealing it without their permission. Despite their non-physical attributes, intellectual properties can hold more importance than any physical property. So, intellectual properties can deliver numerous advantages, and that is why the owner protects them.
Four main types of intellectual properties (with examples):
If you have a business to run, then you should know some essential types of intellectual properties. We have talked to so many businessmen who have no idea about their intellectual properties and how to protect them. Every business owner should have information about intellectual properties and how to protect them. There are four main types of intellectual property.
- Copyrights
- Patent
- Trademarks
- Trade Secrets
Copyrights
A form of security and protection that the United States law for intellectual properties provide to the owners and authors of original work is called copyrights. Copyrights give full authority and protection for your artwork that you do not want people to use without your permission. If anyone does, then you have the right to copyright the work.
Plus, if anyone wants to reuse your work, then they should ask you first, name you as the first owner, and spread your work for appreciation. If anyone wants to use your work for educational, motivational, parody, entertainment, commenting, or awareness purposes, then they can use it with your permission. These reuses are called “Fair Use”. Below are some intellectual property examples.
Example:
Copyrights are for:
- Books
- Quotes
- Pictures
- Art
- Movie
- Music
Patent
A property right to the companies that offer the owners a right to exclude all the outside parties to reuse, making offers to sale, or making any changes to the product, is Patent. The patent is the most important and most challenging to obtain and maintain among all the types.
When the patent is received, the property owner may issue a license to outside parties for using and not using their product or even its structure. A patent is only valid within the United States and its territories and possessions. Moreover, 130 states have agreed to respect the patents through the patent Cooperation Treaty.
Examples
Patent items include processes and objects like technology and business methods, but they do not have websites and ideas.
Trademarks
This is another common category of intellectual property. The United States defines trademarks as any word, symbol, device, name or combination, used in business to differentiate and identify the products from sellers and manufacturers. The authorities assign the trademark to the companies so that other companies and business owners may not use it. The trademark is only associated with the brand or company.
Example
Trademark may include some words, phrases, or pictures. These are the common types of trademarks. For example, Coca-cola drinks have a trademark shape; Toyota, Suzuki, or ford have their trademark logos and shapes.
Trade Secrets
This is the last and fourth type of intellectual properties. It is defined as the fact and idea that is never disclosed (Officially) by the company or a business. This type of intellectual property can remain a secret while applying for a patent or be guarded for a lifetime.
A trade secret is something that a company guards very strictly because it is directly related to manufacturing and protecting the rights of their products. A trade secret must have some unique and genuine requirements that are not so obvious because it helps the business in competition and gaining economic advantages.
Example
The best example of trade secrets is Coca-Cola drinks recipes.
Importance of intellectual properties
We believe that protecting intellectual properties is as vital as protecting physical assets. Hundreds of companies rely on their copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and patents. All the types of intellectual properties help the companies in protecting and improving national or state economics. Intellectual property rights need to be saved, and for that, we need an intellectual property lawyer. Los-Angeles copyright lawyers are great for this job.
Because of these intellectual property rights protects the true value of any brand and their products. That is why these rights have become the essential elements of the success of any company. Some of the benefits of intellectual properties are:
Importance for the companies
Companies that are protective about their intellectual property rights have offered jobs to more than 50 million Americans and 100 million employees worldwide.
- These industries can grow their jobs faster than any countries average.
- These industries pay 30% more than any non-IP industries, as the average yearly salary of an IP-intensive company is $50,576, while other companies pay $38,768 per employee.
- The intellectual property’s worth of America is worth more than $5.8 trillion, and that is more than the GDP of other countries.
- The value of a single employee in an IP-intensive company is 72.5% higher than other companies in the United States.
Importance for consumers
Strong intellectual property rights help the consumers make an educated and reasonable decision according to the product’s safety, effectiveness, or reliability.
Substantial intellectual property rights make sure that the product made by the IP-intensive company is authentic, highest-quality, and proper according to the expectation of the consumers.
Intellectual property rights provide trust, relaxation, and confidence to the consumers.
