Intellectual property is a broad categorical description for the set of intangible assets owned and legally protected by a company/firm from outside use or implementation without consent. An intangible asset is a non-physical asset that a company/firm owns.
- Intellectual property is an umbrella term for a set of intangible assets or assets that are not physical in nature.
- Intellectual property can consist of many types of assets, including trademarks, patents, and copyrights.
Patents
A patent is a property right for an investor that's typically granted by a government agency such as the Office of the Controller General of Patents,Designs and Trade marks. The patent allows the inventor exclusive rights to the invention, which could be a design, process, an improvement, or physical invention such as a machine. Technology and software companies often have patents for their designs. For example, the patent for the personal computer was filed by Steve Jobs and three other colleagues at Apple Inc.
Copyrights
Copyright provides authors and creators of original material the exclusive right to use, copy, or duplicate their material. Authors of books have their works copyrighted as do musical artists. A copyright also states that the original creators can grant anyone authorization through a licensing agreement to use the work.
Trademarks
A trademark is a symbol, phrase, or insignia that is recognizable and represents a product that legally separates it from other products. A trademark is exclusively assigned to a company/firm, meaning the company/firm owns the trademark so that no others may use or copy it. A trademark is often associated with a company's/firm's brand. For example, the logo and brand name of "Apple," is owned by the Apple Inc.
Designs
In general, a design is the outer outlook of an article that a naked eye can see. The definition of a Design as per the act provides that a design means only the features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colors applied to any article whether in two dimensional or three dimensional or both forms, by any industrial process or means, whether manual, mechanical or chemical, separate or combined, which in the finished article appeal to and are judged solely by the eye, but does not include any mode or principle of construction or anything which is in substance a mere mechanical device, and does not include any trademark or property mark or artistic work.The registration and protection of industrial designs in India is administered by the Designs Act , 2000 and corresponding Designs Rules , 2001 which came into force on 11th May 2001 repealing the earlier Act of 1911. The Design Rules, 2001 was further amended by Designs (Amendment) Rules 2008 and Designs (Amendment) Rules 2014. The last amendment in Designs Rules came in to force from 30th December, 2014, which incorporates a new category of applicant as small entity in addition to natural person and other than small entity.
The industrial design recognizes the creation new and original features of new shape, configuration, surface pattern, ornamentations and composition of lines or colours applied to articles which in the finished state appeal to and are judged solely by the eye.
