The following is a glossary of terms commonly used within intellectual property
You can find detailed descriptions of particular intellectual property rights terms such as patent, copyright and trademark in the overview section.
Assignment - Transfer of intellectual property from the owner to another entity.
Author - Person by whom copyright work or design is created.
Claims - Statements of invention which a patent purports to protect.
Copyright work - Among others, a literary work (including a computer program), dramatic work or musical work, sound recording or artistic work.
Enforcement - Using intellectual property rights to prevent unauthorised use or copying; remedies include damages and injunctions.
Exclusive licence - Licence granted by which the recipient is the only party allowed to use a right; the owner itself is excluded from use.
Get-up - The whole visible external appearance of goods in the form which they are likely to be seen by the public before purchase.
Infringement - Unauthorised carrying out of an action which is reserved to the owner of intellectual property (eg copying design, adopting brand).
Intellectual property (rights) - Intangible property rights resulting from intellectual effort, including patents, designs, copyright. Also known as IPR.
Licence - Agreement by property owner to allow another person to use property, without which that use would be an infringement.
Licensee - Party who is granted a licence.
Licensor - Party who grants a licence.
Monopoly - The exclusivity conferred by certain intellectual property rights; patents and registered designs confer an absolute monopoly in that the owner need not show copying (or awareness by a third party of the protected right) to enforce against a third party.
Moral right - Right to be acknowledged as author of a copyright work and to object to derogatory treatment of it. The right is personal to the (non-employed) author and cannot be assigned.
Novelty - Fact of not having published or disclosed an invention or design: necessary to obtain patent or registered design protection.
Passing off - Actionable misrepresentation by a party that goods or business are those of another.
Priority - The period following filing of a patent or registered design application in one country, during which an equivalent application with the same protection, ie the same filing date as the previous application, can be filed elsewhere.
Recordal - A licensee or charge holder of a registered right entering his interest and/or notifying of the changes in his interest on the public register, and so protecting that interest against third parties acquiring the right.
Renewal - Keeping intellectual property registered by payment of periodic fees (annual for patents, five-yearly for registered designs, ten-yearly for trade marks).
Revocation - Procedure to remove a trade mark, patent or registered design from the register. Royalty - payment to property owner by licensee based on unit quantity sold using owner's rights.
Sole licence - A licence granted by which the recipient and also the owner/licensor are the only parties allowed to use the right.