Often we deal with properties like a piece of land or vehicle or any physical object. But intellectual properties are a bit different from them. All properties can be broadly classified into two categories:
1.Physical or tangible properties; which includes all properties which exist physically, which can be sensed and touched physically by our organs, like furniture, car, clothing, jewellery, etc.
2.Non-physical or intangible properties; which includes properties which exist either digitally or legally and cannot be touched physically. Examples include stocks of companies, cryptocurrency, confidential information, designs, etc
Intellectual properties (IPs) are non-physical or intangible properties. Government issues certain exclusive legal rights to the creators of unique and useful industrial, scientific and artistic creation. Such creation may include anything ranging from designs, sketches, literature, recordings of videos and audios, inventions, brand names, trade symbols, business secrets, etc. There are different IPR’s for different types of creations. For example, patents are for protecting scientific inventions, copyrights are for expressions of literature and art, trademarks are for protecting business identities like brand name and logo, etc.
IPRs are territorial rights, they are not international rights. It means that if you protected a patent in the US, it will be valid only in the US and not in India. There are separate processes for protecting different IPRs. After examining the application, if the applicant satisfies all legal conditions, government gives certain exclusive rights to the creator for a specific period. These are intellectual property rights.