1. Overview
Intellectual property is something unique that you physically create – an idea alone is not intellectual property.
For example, an idea for a book is not intellectual property, but the words you’ve written are.
Copyright, patents, designs and trade marks are all types of intellectual property protection.
Your intellectual property is either protected automatically from theft or copying, or you can register it to protect it.
By knowing your rights and having the right type of protection you can stop people stealing or copying:
- the names of your products or brands
- your inventions
- the design or look of your products
- things you write, make or produce