WHAT IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY?
What is IP? IP is a term used to
describe the various rights which
protect your ideas and other forms of
intellectual creation. There are
several types of IP rights which
protect different types of creation.
Some of these rights, such as patents,
have to be registered to be effective
whereas others arise automatically. IP
can be split into six main categories
as illustrated opposite.
The creators of copyright works
have some additional rights called
���moral rights���, such as the right to
be named as the author of the
work. These are personal rights
which are not strictly IP, but you may
sometimes come across them.
You may also have seen the terms
���background IP��� and ���foreground IP���
being used in research contracts.
You have to look at exactly how
they are defined in the contract,
but, generally:
> ���background IP��� is any IP
belonging to one or more of the
collaborators which already
existed when the project started,
but which may be relevant to the
subject matter of the project; and
> ���foreground IP���, on the other
hand, is the IP that is generated
by the research and its ownership
will be determined by the terms
of the research contract.
A more detailed description of the
different types of IP, together with
some practical examples of the sorts
of things that they protect, are set
out in the University���s intranet IP
Awareness Resource
www.manchester.ac.uk/ipresource
and ���IP and Confidentiality: A
Researcher���s Guide��� which is
available via the Resource and the
UMIP website www.umip.com.
Today���s communication technology
is based on the work of Tom
Kilburn and Freddie Williams,
who developed the world���s first
modern computer at The
University of Manchester
6
