Copyright protection, importance

Patents are the most important and strongest type of intellectual property. Patents protect inventions or technical innovations. Patents do not protect new designs (these are protected by copyright or registered designs), nor do... 

One of the most important aspects of entrepreneurship is protecting the idea, referred to as intellectual property. Intellectual property can take many forms, from logos, to products, to business processes, as some examples. Types of protection include copyrights, trademarks, and patents (Allen, 2003). 

Mere ideas which are not recorded, but perliaps only remembered by persons who heard them being expressed, are not protected by copyright. This can have important practical implications. If an idea is not embodied in a patented invention, and is not recorded for the purposes of copyright law, the only way in which it can be protected from exploitation by others is as confidential information. But if it was not disclosed in circumstances which impose an obligation of confidence, then it will not be protected by intellectual property laws. 

A further list of matters which are not patentable is contained in Sections 1(2) and 1(3) of the Patents Act. Some of these are excluded for public policy reasons others because they are more appropriately protected by copyright and others because they are no more than disembodied ideas, schemes or formulae, which have no practical, physical dimension in which they can be commercially exploited. The most important for present purposes are ... 

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