What is intellectual property
Every business has valuable intellectual assets, for example products, inventions, knowledge and designs. Having intellectual property (IP) rights means you can legally protect your assets and you can then:
- bring your products and services to market
- license your IP
- sell your IP
- take legal action against anyone who steals or copies your IP
Intellectual property rights can apply to:
- the names and logos of your products and brands
- your unique products or inventions
- innovative aspects of your products
- the design or look of your products
- written, visual or audio content
Intellectual property is something unique that you create (physically or digitally). An idea alone isn't intellectual property. For example, an idea for a book doesn't count, but the words you've written do.
Owning and protecting intellectual property
You own intellectual property if you:
- created it (and it meets the requirements for copyright, trademark, patent or design protection)
- bought intellectual property rights from the creator or a previous owner
Your employer will usually own the IP rights to anything you create while working for them. Any IP you create during your employment will remain theirs unless the rights are transferred to you in a written legal document. In legal terms, this is called assignment.
If you pay someone else to create IP, they will own it unless it is transferred explicitly in a legal agreement between you both.
Intellectual property can:
- have more than one owner
- belong to people or businesses
- be sold or transferred
Protecting intellectual property
Copyright, patents, designs and trade-marks are all types of intellectual property protection. Some of these are granted automatically, others you have to apply for.
The Intellectual Property Office is responsible for IP rights in the UK and they can advise you about the different types of protection. You can also get local support and advice on intellectual property in Scotland.
Find out how you can get intellectual property support for your business from Scottish Enterprise.
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