Intellectual property rights protect exclusive use, production, and sale of software, logos, designs, and recipes. Infringement occurs when someone uses these without permission. Patents protect inventions, copyrights protect original works, trademarks differentiate products, and trade secrets are confidential information. Infringement occurs when these are used without permission.
Many countries recognize the right of a person to exclusively use, produce or sell certain types of intellectual property, such as software products, brand logos, designs or recipes. These rights are commonly granted in the form of patent, trademark, copyright or trade secret protection. Intellectual property infringement occurs when one person or entity infringes another person’s exclusive rights to intellectual property. The most common types of intellectual property infringement are patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret infringement.
In general, when a person receives a patent for intellectual property, he or she has invented something. The patent gives the inventor the right to exclude other people from making, using, selling or importing the product. Patent infringement occurs when a person other than the patent owner manufactures, uses, sells, or imports the product without the patent owner’s permission. For example, suppose Jane Smith received a patent for inventing a certain type of hearing aid. If John Doe started making the same hearing aid without Jane’s permission, he would be committing intellectual property theft.
Copyrights are commonly granted to authors of original works, whether or not those works are published. Commonly copyrighted items include television programs, music, and movies, as well as books, magazines, and websites. In an intellectual property copyright infringement case, the copyright owner can sue another party for infringement of exclusive rights of the owner on the copyrighted work. For example, if a person illegally downloads songs from a website, he is guilty of copyright infringement.
Trademarks are symbols, words, logos, or names that are intended to differentiate one manufacturer’s or seller’s products from products made or sold by another person or entity. If symbols, words, logos or names are given trademark protection, they cannot be used by other people without the owner’s permission. Trademark intellectual property infringement occurs when a person or entity uses a trademark element without permission. For example, suppose Company A registered a logo that identifies Company A’s sportswear brand. If Company B starts putting the same logo on its sportswear brand, Company B would commit theft of intellectual property.
Typically, trade secret items are confidential or proprietary information to which an entity or person has exclusive rights. A company’s pricing methodologies, computer software code, and the recipe for a specific soft drink are all examples of trade secrets. Cases of trade secret intellectual property infringement often occur when trade secrets have been stolen. For example, suppose Company A is developing a new product. If Company B steals product specifications to develop a competing product, Company B would have committed trade secret theft.
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