Intellectual property
The Business & IP Centre offers the UK’s largest collection of intellectual property (IP) information. Learn what IP is, why it matters and how to protect your business through our free resources.
Audio-described version of Why is IP so important for small business? video.
What is intellectual property?
Intellectual property (IP) covers any creations of the mind, like inventions, designs, logos and more. Protecting your IP is essential for any business. Explore the four main types of IP below in our free guides and workshops.
Copyright
Copyright is a form of intellectual property that gives creators the exclusive right to use and share their original work. It protects things like books, songs, films, software and architecture.
To be protected by copyright, a work must be:
- an original creation
- in a written or recorded form.
Learn more about how copyright works and how to protect your creations with our free IP guide for copyright.
Patents
A patent protects new inventions, covering how things work, processes, what they do, how they’re made and what they’re made of. It gives the owner the right to stop others from making, using, importing or selling the invention without permission.
A UK patent can help you take legal action if someone uses your invention without consent. For example, if they manufacture or sell your product in the UK.
Learn more about patents and how to protect your inventions with our free IP guide for patents.
Registered designs
A registered design protects the look of a product that you’ve designed to stop people from copying or stealing it. The look of your design includes the appearance, physical shape, configuration (or how different parts of a design are arranged together) and decoration.
Learn more about protecting your physical products with our free IP guide for registered designs.
Trade marks
Trade marks are badges of origin that distinguish the goods or services of one business from another. They can take many forms, including words, slogans, logos, shapes, colours and sounds.
Registering your trade mark gives you the right to:
- take legal action against anyone using your brand without permission
- use the trade mark symbol (™ or ®) to show ownership and warn others against using it
- sell or license your brand.
Learn more about trade marks and protecting your brand with our free IP guide for trade marks.
Workshops and events
We run a regular series of workshops and webinars to help you make the most of our intellectual property information and resources:
- Introduction to intellectual property
- An introduction to patents and patent searching
- Introduction to registered designs
- Introduction to copyright for business
Access our resources
To learn more about intellectual property and access our free resources in the Business & IP Centre, you will need a free Reader Pass from our Reader Registration at the British Library in St Pancras, London.
Your next steps
Book a one-to-one session with our team of information specialists who can provide guidance on protecting your intellectual property and point you in the right direction to help you confidently move forward in your business journey.
Kickstart Your Business
With our free two-day programme in London you can get practical tips to get your start-up off the ground and turn your idea into a reality. You'll receive tailored business information on everything from finding your customers to researching and protecting your brand.
Support for all
Hear from small businesses about how the BIPC supported them with IP to protect and grow their businesses.
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