Intellectual property and your work
What intellectual property is
Having the right type of intellectual property protection helps you to stop people stealing or copying:
- the names of your products or brands
- your inventions
- the design or look of your products
- things you write, make or produce
This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg).
Copyright, patents, designs and trade marks are all types of intellectual property protection. You get some types of protection automatically, others you have to apply for.
What counts as intellectual property
Intellectual property is something that you create using your mind - for example, a story, an invention, an artistic work or a symbol.
Owning intellectual property
You own intellectual property if you:
- created it (and it meets the requirements for copyright, a patent or a design)
- bought intellectual property rights from the creator or a previous owner
- have a brand that could be a trade mark, for example, a well-known product name
Intellectual property can:
- have more than one owner
- belong to people or businesses
- be sold or transferred
Intellectual property rights allow you to make money from the intellectual property you own.
Intellectual property if you’re self-employed
If you’re self-employed, you usually own the intellectual property even if your work was commissioned by someone else - unless your contract with them gives them the rights.
You usually will not own the intellectual property for something you created as part of your work while you were employed by someone else.