Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.

The Two Branches of Intellectual Property IP is usually divided into two branches, namely industrial property and copyright.

Intellectual property rights are legal rights that provide creators protection for original works, inventions, or the appearance of products, artistic works, scientific developments, and so on. There are four types of intellectual property rights (IP): patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.

(1) Intangible property Intellectual property law does not deal with the material object in which the works of the mind have represented. The main feature which distinguishes IP from other types of property is its intangibility. IP is about a person’s ability to produce a new idea and put it before the public.

1. The main objective of intellectual property law is to encourage innovation and to provide incentives for innovation by granting protection to inventors that will allow them to recover research and development investments and reap the benefits of their inventions for a limited period of time.

The main purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goods. To achieve this, the law gives people and businesses property rights to the information and intellectual goods they create, usually for a limited period of time.

Intellectual Property (IP) is any creations of human mind. Like tangible property, their creation has a value and, as with all property, it needs to be protected. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) gives them this protection, as well as helping them exploit and control their IP. “

Out of these, 531 cases related to trade marks, followed by copyrights (157), designs (14) and patents (42).

Intellectual property protection is critical to fostering innovation. Without protection of ideas, businesses and individuals would not reap the full benefits of their inventions and would focus less on research and development.

The law is the best way to protect material such as software. To use the law as protection, programmers and businesses treat software as intellectual property.

Any software, custom software including, can be classified as protected by the means of copyright, patents, or trade secrets. Software products consist of various components that usually fall under different legal categories, making protection and definition of derivative works a headache.

There are essentially four types of intellectual property rights relevant to software: patents, copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks. Each affords a different type of legal protection. Patents, copyrights and trade secrets can be used to protect the technology itself.

Intellectual property rights are at the root of the software industry. Innovations made in the software products can quintessentially be protected by patents, copyrights and trademarks. Patents and copyrights provide protection to the software itself.

In most countries, there are four primary types of intellectual property (IP) that can be legally protected: patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.

4 Ways To Protect The Intellectual Property Of Your Software

1. File a Copyright. A copyright is the protection of an idea or other information that has been developed by the copyright holder.
2. File for a Patent. A patent grants property rights to the inventor of a new invention.
3. Think Hard About Source Code Licenses.
4. Have Developers Sign an IP Assignment Agreement.

Computer software or programs are instructions that are executed by a computer. Software is protected under copyright law and the inventions related to software are protected under patent law.

TL;DR. Software based inventions are still patentable in the United States. But, in order to patent eligible, software patent applications must meet certain technical requirements, and must be written very carefully.

Copyright is for original works, like songs, books, and software code. A copyright protects what’s known as the “expression” of your work. Copyright protects your software code from someone else copying it and using it without your permission. The U.S. Copyright Ac details how this protection works.

The company also owns Instagram, a mobile application for sharing photos and videos, as well as WhatsApp, a mobile messaging application. Facebook Patents Granted: Facebook patents that have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The simple answer: Logos are not copyrighted, they are actually trademarked. Whether or not legal action is taken for replicating a trademarked logo is fully up to the company or entity that owns the trademark. A company still has legal rights to their logo even if it’s not trademarked.

This means that functionally, patenting an app is near impossible. Even if you wrote the code yourself, it still exists in an open source library somewhere. Legally, almost nothing in a new mobile app is eligible for a patent.

Inventions can be patented. Ideas cannot be patented. So, you do not have an idea, you have an invention, or you will have an invention if you continue on your journey and don’t give up. And once the culmination of the innovation journey is realized then it becomes time to file a patent application.

Estimates of the Cost of Filing a Patent However, industry experts estimate that obtaining a patent on a “simple” invention (like a paper clip or a coat hanger) can total anywhere from $5,000 to $7,000. A patent on a complicated piece of software may cost $15,000 or more.