Protecting your ideas and inventions

The different forms of intellectual property (IP) rights for protection of ideas are:

Patents for new or improved products or processes;

Trademarks for letters, words, phrases, sounds, smells, shapes, logos, pictures, aspects of packaging or a combination of these, to distinguish the goods and services of one trader from those of another;

Designs for the shape or appearance of goods;

Plant Breeder’s Rights for new plant varieties;

Copyright for original material in literary, artistic, dramatic, or musical works, films, broadcasts, multimedia, and computer programs;

Circuit Layouts Rights for the three-dimensional configuration of electronic circuits in integrated circuit products or layout designs;

Confidentiality / Trade Secrets including know-how and other confidential information.