LibGuides: Patents and Trademarks: What is Intellectual Property?

What is IP?

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution says, "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;"

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, intellectual property (IP) is "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."¹

Types of intellectual property include patents, trademarks, copyright, and trade secrets. Each of these protect different types of information, offer different types of protection, and require different actions.

1. What is intellectual property (IP)?. WIPO. (n.d.). https://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/

Patents

Patents are a form of protection for inventions, designs, processes, and some plants.
Patents "exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States."¹
Patents are granted by the government for a specific period of time in exchange for the public disemination of the invention/design/process/plant.
To be granted, an invention must be useful, novel, and non-obvious.

1. 35 U.S. Code §154

What is IP? (video 2:13 long)

Trademarks

Trademarks protect identifiers such as logos, slogans, and, in some cases, names.
There are many types of trademarks.
Trademarks last as long as the trademark is being used.
Trademarks can be similar if the goods represented are dissimilar.
- Mr Bubble is a bubble blowing product (a toy) while Mr. Bubble is a bubble bath. The names are very similar but the products are not so they are both valid trademarks.