Protecting your IP rights
You can protect a new product, brand, or technology with intellectual property rights. This prevents other parties from copying it without your permission. There are different IP rights. See which protection best suits your work.
What is intellectual property?
Intellectual property or IP is the collective name for rights that protect developed ideas, concepts, and inventions. You cannot protect an undeveloped idea. IP rights apply, for example, to new products, music, brand names, trade names, inventions, product designs, techniques, games, software, lyrics, and photographs.
Different types of IP rights
You can protect your creation with different types of IP rights. Some rights are awarded automatically. Some rights you have to register or deposit. Bear in mind that, when it comes to claiming your IP rights, it is always best to have a written record that states you are the owner of the IP rights of a product or service. This is true even for automatically awarded IP rights.
Rights you have to register
- Trademark right protects your trade name, company logo, brand name, product, or service.
- Patent protects a technical invention.
- Design right protects a design, drawing, or model.
- Plant breeder’s right protects newly developed plant races.
- Local products can be protected at European level with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), Geographical indication of spirit drinks (GI), or Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG).
Rights you automatically have
- Copyright protects original works. For example, texts, photographs, software, films, games, and websites.
- Trade name right protects your trade name when it is actively used.
- Database right protects against retrieving and re-using of a large portion of the data in a database.
- Semiconductor right protects the topography of semiconductors (chips or microprocessors). You must apply for chip rights if you wish to enforce them.
Other forms of protection
- An idea that has not yet been developed cannot be protected by intellectual property rights. But you can record your idea with a date stamp in the i-DEPOT. The i-DEPOT is also useful for works to which you hold the copyright and for information that you want to protect as a trade secret. You can also use the i-DEPOT for designs for which you want to claim protection via an unregistered EU design.
- In a non-disclosure agreement (NDA, confidentiality statement), you and your partners agree, for example, which information must remain confidential and which may be disclosed.
- The Trade Secret Protection Act (Wet bescherming bedrijfsgeheimen, Wbb) protects your confidential business information, such as technical knowledge, research data and concepts.
Also read the step-by-step plan, protecting your product, service or invention.