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The list of various types of legal monopolies over creations of idea, both artistic and commercial, and the related fields of law is called Intellectual property (IP). Under intellectual property law, owners have sole rights to some intangibles like musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, breakthroughs, and inventions; and words. phrases, symbols, and designs. Intellectual property has been divided into four main categories namely patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.

Copyrights deal with protection of original literary and other creative works. They provide legal protection for original works of creativity like novels, movies, musical scores, and so on. It gives legal rights to the creator to make use of the expression of his or her original work in addition to reproducing, distributing, exhibiting or even selling it with absolute freedom within the time decided by law. In most nations, a copyright lasts for fifty years even after the author’s death and any unlawful use within this period is considered an offence.

Patents are legal and registered rights that allow inventors to prevent others from producing or marketing their invention. They offer protection not only for technological breakthroughs and new theories in science but also for discoveries such as biological ones. The protection cover provided by a patent in most countries is for a period of two decades, after which the invention ceases to be the exclusive property of the patent owner.

Trade secrets are those classified ideas or information that a company can use for gaining an edge over its competitors. A trade secret could mean anything ranging from a client database with the contact information of most treasured clients to a unique recipe or even some secret research. Generally, trade secrets are not controlled by the state machinery but by strict internal standards and policies of the particular firm. The usual way of securing trade secrets is by allowing access to only a few key executives and not everyone, or by keeping it safe in a bank together with other valuables and papers.

Trademarks, on the other hand, include one or more words, designs or logos that are related to the firm on the whole or its products and services, which act as identifiers of its brand. Trademarks act as a quick recall of the company in the customer’s mind and create a particular brand identity. Usually, a registered trademark can be renewed after a span of 10 years.

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When we talk about property, it is not only the tangible things such as homes, structures, land, money etc that are protected by law. Other types of property which are non- material in form also exist. They are termed intellectual property and these are also protected by the law. The three primary kinds of intellectual property rights are patents, trademarks and copyrights.

Copyrights are intellectual property dealing with rights of an author or an artist over his or her original creation. 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 a number of privileges which include financial rights to income generated from the work and acceptance as sole owner of that work.

In contrast, trademarks accord the person who has registered it, the safety over certain graphical representations, words or marks which point to the creator or source of products to prevent replication and thus infringement. With this legal shield, trademark is protected from duplication by unscrupulous persons who wish to exploit reputed brands.

The third kind of intellectual property right, termed as patent, safeguards the rights of inventors in their innovative and useful invention. It gives them exclusive privilege of use and sale of their invention for a particular period.

There are some more intellectual property rights too which are less often enforced and used. Some examples of other types are traditional understanding cultivated by inhabitants of a particular area that is distinctive only to that area; trade secrets that include business secrets, for instance, KFC’s recipe; and positional pointers that are a variant of trademarks used for merchandise originating from a particular part of the world, for instance Champagne.

While all the three types of intellectual property mentioned above are different from each other there are also some similarities. All three are fully protected by the law and the rightful owner can take legal action to establish his right and claim compensation for any misuse.

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The term trademark stands for certain symbols or texts that distinguish the products of one company from the other. The prime function of trademarks is to prevent any confusion in the consumers’ minds about the source of a product that they intend to purchase.

One of the critical needs for a trademark is that it should be distinctly recognizable and not be similar to other marks existing in the market. The uniqueness of a trademark can be determined by placing it in one of the trademark groups – suggestive, descriptive, fanciful, and generic.

A descriptive mark uses a specific characteristic or aspect of a product to differentiate it from other commodities of its kind. However, marks that are descriptive are not as distinctive as some other marks and thus, they are not generally eligible to be trademarked. Although, if the mark has acquired a secondary identification that is more popular among the consumers, it can be successfully trademarked.

Suggestive marks, as is evident by the name, suggest an essential feature of the product. However, it is usually the case that the mark and the product do not show any obvious relation and the consumers might have to guess the link between the two. For instance, the brand name known as ‘Hush Puppies’ points to a comfortable range of footwear that makes sure that your feet do not become sore. The prime reason behind such a name is that ‘barking dogs’ is used as a slang for sore feet in some places in America.

Arbitrary marks are those marks which do not have any link whatsoever with the product itself. For example, the usage of the mark ‘Apple’ for computers is totally disconnected from the product. Similarly, there is no link between the fanciful name Exxon and the items sold under the trademark as it is a fruit of the creative mind of the marketing agents of the firm.

Finally, generic marks are ones which represent a general category of products like ‘olive oil’ and are granted no protection under the existing trademark laws.

Discover more about Trademarks and learn how does an Patents protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.