Copyright refers to the rights of a creator over his/her literary and artistic creations: books, music, paintings, sculptures, movies… It also refers to the rights of creators over software, databases, maps and technical drawings.

This is a special type of licence that enables users or third parties to use copyright protected works without seeking authorisation from the authors, as long as they respect the conditions established in the agreement. There are currently 6 types of Creative Commons licences.

An industrial design protects the ornamental aspect or the aesthetics of a product. Designs can apply to a wide variety of products: watches, jewellery, household appliances, vehicles…

The domain name is what identifies a company on the internet, since no domain names are the same.

A generic trade mark, also known as a genericised trade mark, is a trade mark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become used as a generic name to designate a general category of products or services. Therefore, the trade mark loses its distinctiveness (capacity to indicate the corporate origin of a good or service), its registration loses validity and it can now be used by anyone.

This is the exclusive right that enables anyone to decide on the recording, dissemination or publication of one’s own image, as well as the right to prevent others from doing so without authorisation.

are private legal rights that protect the creation of the human mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in trade. They are commonly divided into two categories: Industrial Property rights (e.g. patents, trade marks, industrial designs…) and Copyright and Related rights (e.g. rights of authors/creators and those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programmes).

Refers to a breach of the rights granted by a patent, copyright, database right, performer right, design, trade mark, etc.

A patent is an exclusive right over an invention that enables the right holder to decide who can use the invention and how.

Intellectual property rights are, by nature, territorial. This means that they are usually regulated at national level by each country and that protection is granted only within the country’s borders.

A trade mark is a sign that allows consumers to differentiate a company’s products or services from the ones of its competitors. A trade mark can be a word, numbers, drawings, symbols, sounds, smells and even colours.

Trade secrets are industrial property rights that protect confidential information and can be sold or licensed. For the information to be considered as a trade secret, it needs to be commercially valuable, known only by a limited number of people, and the company that holds the information needs to take reasonable steps to keep it secret. The most famous example of trade secret is the Coca Cola recipe.

A utility model is also an exclusive right over an invention. But, unlike patents, it only protects minor improvements of already existing products, or adaptations of said products.