Intellectual property rights” are legal protections for creations, designs, inventions, business brands, and identities. The main types of intellectual property or “IP” are patents, trademarks, and copyright. You may also have heard of trade secrets and publicity rights (name, image and likeness  or NIL). These are all types of IP but they are very different from each other. They each have different legal standards for protection. Some types of IP require an application and other types of IP rights do not have an application process.

If you are a business owner or content creator who offers products or services, you definitely have copyrights or maybe even patents to think about. You also have your business brand and reputation that you are building which is why you need to pay attention to your trademarks.

Big companies invest a lot of money to get and keep their IP rights because they know that IP is a critical business asset. It is important for your business too!

Copyrights are the legal rights that prevent the unauthorized copying of “literary and artistic works.” A literary or artistic work is something that you have written or drawn, for example. This could be a poem, a short story, or a fabric design. An artistic work may be something that you, painted, or sculpted, for example. We call the copyright “intangible” because I can own the copyright even though you own the physical book. For example, I own the copyright over the content of a book that I wrote. When I sell the book to you, you become the owner of the physical book but I still own the copyright. You cannot just make copies of my book and start selling it.

Trademarks are symbols – like names or logos –  that you use to make your products and services stand out from the products or services of your competitors. Trademarks help your customers and clients remember that your company makes the product they like or provides the service that makes them keep coming back. Trademarks make it easier to quickly identify you as the source of the product or service and are an essential part of your brand strategy. Trademarks go hand in hand with your branding, marketing, and your business value.

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is  defined under international law to include cultural know-how and practices that are passed down from one generation to the next. It can include stories, songs, dances, arts and crafts, rituals, or medicinal knowledge that is passed down within a cultural community. It is also called traditional knowledge or traditional cultural expressions.  When cultural heritage is used by companies to sell their fashion items or other products, it can lead to claims of cultural appropriation.  It is not “appreciation” when the community is not consulted or even acknowledged.

Cultural Intellectual Property (IP) refers to certain types of intangible heritage. ICH may include cultural IP but not all ICH is cultural IP. Cultural IP includes things such as traditional names, designs or symbols that could be protected by trademark law if used to identify a business or product. It also includes creative works that could be protected by copyright, for example, but are no longer protected because they have been passed down in the community for generations. Sometimes cultural IP is protected as traditional knowledge or traditional cultural expressions under the national laws of various countries. For example, Ghana’s kente cloth is protected as part of Ghanaian cultural heritage under Ghana’s Copyright Act.