Patents

Intellectual property is commercial assets in intangible forms, encompassing products of human creativity and ingenuity. This includes inventions, designs, trademarks, creative artistic and literary works, and trade secrets. Intellectual property is safeguarded through patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws. Government agencies, such as United States Patent and Trademark Office grants patents and trademarks; while the U.S. Copyright Office grants copyrights.

• Patents protect inventions such as machines, manufactures, processes or compositions.
• Trademarks protect names and symbols associated with goods and services.
• Copyrights protect literary and artistic expressions, such as writings, paintings, sculptures, and music.
• Trade secrets protect business information including formulas, practices, processes, designs, instruments, patterns, or compilations of information that have inherent economic value and that are generally not known to the public.