Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property: A Practical Guide to Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents & Trade Secrets

The Value of Intellectual Property

Until the 1990s, nearly all business owners could readily point to their company's valuable assets. Those assets usually consisted of real estate, referred to as real property, or durable goods, such as trucks, manufacturing facilities, or equipment, referred to as personal property. The past several years have seen tremendous growth in another type of property that is very different from real or personal property: intellectual property. It is called intellectual property because it is the product of human creativity, thought, and inventiveness. Although much of intellectual property is intangible, it can be more valuable than real or personal property.

Because the U.S. economy is witnessing a dramatic surge ...