Intellectual Property is a collection of legal rights that provide control over the availability and use of skills, creativity, resources and technology and gives the owner or his licensee a competitive advantage. To the contrary of what is generally believed, IP is not limited to patent applications. There are many other IP rights, protecting different types of creations.
Overview of Intellectual Property rights
Legal rights | What for? | How? |
Patents | New inventions | Application and examination |
Copyright © | Original creative or artistic forms | Exists automatically |
Trade marks ™/® | Distinctive identification of products or services | Use and/or registration |
Registered designs | External appearance | Registration |
Trade secrets | Valuable information not known to the public | Reasonable efforts to keep secret |
Since IP can be one of the sources of your competitive advantage, it should not be overlooked. It is essential to protect your IP, but also to optimize the exploitation of these rights by others. However, the process of protecting your IP right is time and resource consuming. Therefore, lifetech.brussels can support you trough this process. We can :
For instance, the Brussels Capital Region supports you in the protection of your IP
Furthermore, Belgium has a particularly favorable tax regime for companies active in Research and Development activities and protecting their intellectual property.
Other resources on the topic :