Protect and promote

your creations and innovations

The term “intellectual property” refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works, and symbols, names and images used in commerce.

Intellectual property is protected in law by, for example, patents, trademarks, and industrial designs which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create. By striking the right balance between the interests of innovators and the wider public interest, the intellectual property system aims to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish.

There are two kinds of intellectual property:

• Industrial property, which includes inventions, trademarks, and industrial designs.
• Copyright, which applies to literary works (such as novels, poems and plays), films, music, artistic works (such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures) and architectural works.

*As defined by the World Intellectual Property Organization

The patent protects a technical invention, in other words a product or process that brings a new technical solution to a given technical problem.

What form of protection does a patent provide?

An invention that is protected by a patent may not be commercially made, used, distributed or sold without the patent holder’s consent.

What are the patent holder’s rights?

The patent holder has the right to decide who may – or may not – use the patented invention for the period in which the invention is protected. The holder may grant other individuals or organisations a license to use the invention under certain agreed terms and conditions. He may also sell his rights to the invention to a third party, who then becomes the patent holder. When the patent expires, the protection ends and the invention enters the public domain, i.e. the holder loses their exclusive rights to the invention, and anyone can commercially exploit the invention without infringing the patent.

In legal terms, a trademark is a ‘sign’ that enables any natural or legal person to distinguish its products or services from those of its competitors.

In legal terms, an industrial design is the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an object. It can be three-dimensional - the shape or surface of the object - or two-dimensional, for example an assembly of lines or colours.