Kinds Of Intellectual Property

Property does not just comprise of tangible things like houses, cars, furniture, currency, investments etc and such assets are not the only kind that can be safeguarded by law. There are other types of property too which are provided for by law and safeguarded within the legal provisions and these are called intellectual property, which can be secured against infringement. There are three main types of property which come under this classification: copyrights, trademarks and patents.

Copyright is an intellectual property safeguard that is granted by law to an author or any other kind of creator for a unique composition or development. It includes not only original writing pieces but also other types of creative expression like music, videos, films etc. Under copyright law, the creator of the work gets several privileges which include monetary rights to income generated from the work and acknowledgement as sole owner of that work.

Trademarks afford intellectual property privileges which aim at preventing replication and exploitation of graphical representations registered by someone for his own products, and they help a consumer easily identify the source of a product. They protect the trademark holders from being financially exploited by counterfeiters.

The third type of intellectual property right, known as patent, protects the rights of inventors in their novel and beneficial invention. It gives them sole right of usage and sale of their invention for a specific span.

There are some other less common kinds of intellectual properties that can be held by people. Some examples of other types are traditional knowledge cultivated by natives of a particular region that is distinctive only to that area; trade secrets that include business secrets, for example, KFC's recipe; and geographical pointers that are a variant of trademarks used for products arising from a particular part of the world, for example Champagne.

These three kinds of intellectual property are quite different from each other for the most part but also possess certain commonalities. All of these are safeguarded within the legal framework and the rightful owners can take legal action in a court of law and claim reparation in case of any violation.

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