What is Intellectual Property

As a general rule, intellectual property rights are those intangible and tangible bundle of rights of a particular intellectual property asset. Accordingly, the legal system seeks to establish enforceable property rights for the creators of new works. Specifically, intellectual property law grants rights to inventors and innovators so they can profit from their creations.

Generally, intellectual property is broken into different categories which include, but are not limited to, trade secrets, confidential information, patents, trademarks, and copyrights. According to Dallas intellectual property attorneys, intellectual property law conveys different types of rights depending on the type of intellectual property that is developed. For example, with respect to trade secrets, intellectual property law protects the trade secrets and other types of valuable information created by a business.

This would include customer lists and other types of sensitive business information. With respect to trademarks, intellectual property law protects the mark of a business so there is little likelihood of confusion as to a business' particular goods or services. According to attorneys, intellectual property law protects the unauthorized reproduction and distribution of the creation of an authors work.

Pursuant to the current intellectual property law framework, patents basically protect the inventions of inventors. Confidential information is that type of sensitive information that is compiled by businesses. Confidential information is very much like trade secrets.

Of note, in terms of litigation, most defendants accused of misappropriating confidential information such as customer lists often claim that the customer lists can be generated by combing through the phone book. However, there is a distinction between those vendors that can be compiled by looking through the phone book versus those customer lists that have the actual name and number of the vendor who is able to make a decision with respect to a particular purchase.

If you need more information, you should contact a qualified Dallas intellectual property attorney to help navigate through your intellectual property needs.
James Bell