Intellectual property can refer to any creation of the human mind. It could be an idea, an invention, a business method, a logo, a picture, a photograph, or a work of authorship like a book - nearly any creation of the human mind. An intellectual property right is a property right. Just as real property ownership may be protected by a deed, intellectual property may be protected by patent, trademark, copyright, or trade secret. Also similar to real property, certain kinds of protected intellectual property can be sold or transferred by its owner to others either for a single payment or in the form of royalty payments.
There are four basic types of intellectual property rights. Those types are known as patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. Patents protect inventions that are useful and that are the original creations of the inventor. Trademarks protect names, slogans and logos that help to distinguish one set of goods and services from another set of goods and services. Some proper names such as Coca-Cola or Nike are trademarks of the owners of those marks. The third kind is copyrights. Copyrights protect works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression such as books, plays, songs and movies. These are protected by copyright protection. The fourth type is trade secrets. These are ideas that are the known knowledge of a company or organization that are not shared with others in a public way and which are tightly held by that company so that they never get released.
Patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets are not the only types of intellectual property, however these are the types that can be legally granted specific protections. Other items that may constitute intellectual property may not be as easily protected under law, although still are creations of the human mind. However, what we mainly concern ourselves with is property that can be protected and that is why each one of these are distinctive. Patents protect inventions. Trademarks protect names and slogans. Copyright protects works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression including music, movies and books. As their name suggests, trade secrets are not shared outside of the organization in which they are kept.
There is one additional vehicle used to protect intellectual property and that is unfair competition law. This type of law also is often used to protect intellectual property, for example, consider a company that makes a commercial using a person who is not the actual model that is being represented but just a look-alike, for say, Cindy Crawford. She sounds and looks just like Ms. Crawford and is meant to. Rather than allow this company to “cash in” on her image, and perhaps also mislead the public into thinking she endorses the advertised product, Ms. Crawford may sue in court to defend her exclusive right to the use of her image. This unfair competition law can protect against certain infringements of ownership rights such as rights of personality as well.