Intellectual Property Law

This chapter discusses intellectual property including patents, copyrights and trademarks. Intellectual property law deals with the rules that apply in protecting inventions, designs and artistic work, and in enforcing such rights. Patents protect innovative ideas and concepts, and give inventors exclusive rights to their invention for a specified period or time. A copyright applies to original writing, music, and other original intellectual and artistic expressions. It protects the expression of the idea and not the underlying idea itself. A trademark protects names or symbols that are used to identify goods or services, and their purpose is to avoid confusion and to help customers distinguish one brand from another.