Intellectual Property At A Glance

Intellectual property is a type of property which is of particular importance to business conducted in the modern world, although it is not an entirely new concept. Intellectual property, or IP, is an ephemeral type of property which is viewed as the work of an individual's mind, as opposed to being inherently connected to some physical product.

For example, a piece of music would be seen as a piece of intellectual property, even though that piece of music could exist in numerous physical forms, from a CD recording to a piece of sheet music to an actual concert performance.

Intellectual property can also cover such property as books, inventions, other forms of art, names, images, and symbols. The key defining characteristic of all of these pieces of intellectual property is that the property is not so much an individual instantiation of the item in question, so much as it is the overall template. For instance, a company's logo is not considered IP in the sense that it exists on a single shoe manufactured by that company. It is instead considered IP insofar as it appears on all of the company's products. Contact an intellectual property lawyer to acquire legal advice and assistance.

IP normally comes in either copyright or industrial property forms. Copyright forms of IP are those forms which can be copyrighted and which are, therefore, generally of the more artistic variety, including music, books, and art. Industrial property which falls under the IP heading, on the other hand, includes those logos, trademarks, and specific designs and inventions which might be valuable within a particular industry.

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