All businesses own assets called intellectual property - perhaps just the name of the business, or copyright, designs, patents and trade marks. Intellectual property can be worth money. Some types have automatic legal protection. Others can be protected by registration.

In Canada there are basically 5 intellectual property categories: copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial designs and integrated circuit information topographies.

Copyrights - Copyright gives rights to the creators of original literacy, dramatic, musical and artistic works and published editions of works, sound recordings, films, videos, broadcasts, cable programmes and computer programs.

In Canada the Canadian Copyright Act recognizes the exclusive right of an author to reproduce every original literary, musical, dramatic, and artistic work he or she creates. When you create an original work, you automatically obtain copyright in Canada; you don't have to register a copyright. However, registration can be useful proof of ownership.

If you wish to register a copyright, you must send your application to the copyright office (at the Canadian Intellectual Property office) on the prescribed form.

Trademarks - Trademarks are symbols, signs or even words, sounds or shapes which distinguish the goods and services of one trader from those of others.

Trademarks help customers and other businesses recognise a business and identify it with the quality of product or service for which it is known. They are often the single most valuable marketing tool a business will have, whatever its size, and can be essential in developing a brand.

In Canada The Trademarks Act governs trademark registration in Canada. Trademark registration gives you the exclusive right to distinguish your wares or services through words, symbols, or designs.

Trademarks don't need to be registered. However, a registered mark is more easily protected. Registration is proof of ownership and lasts for 15 years and its renewable every 15 years afterward.

Patents - Patents protect your inventions and prohibit others from making, using or selling an invention without the inventor's permission.

Patents, which you register at the Patent Office, are concerned with the functional and technical aspects of products and processes. The invention could be a new product, a new process, a new appparatus for performing a process or possibly a new use for a known product. Patented inventions can simply be improvements on an earlier invention.

A Patent is a contract between the federal government and an inventor to exclude others from using the invention in Canada. If you wish to apply for a patent, you must submit a patent application with the appropriate fee to the Commissioner of Patents at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. The application must meet all the requirements of the Patents Act and the Patent Rules.

Industrial Designs - You can protect the design of the outward shape or configuration of products, and patterns and ornamentation.

Design right, an automatic right like copyright, and design registration give the owner the right to stop other people making, using or selling the same or similar designs.

If your design is an original work of art, it's automatically protected under the Copyright Act and you can register it as such. But once you use it as a model or pattern to make 50 or more manufactured articles, it's usually considered an industrial design, which can only be protected under the Industrial Design Act.

Integrated circuit topographies - The Federal Integrated Circuit Topography Act covers what is known as integrated circuit topographies. Topographies are the original three-dimensional configurations of the electronic circuits used in microships and semiconductor chips.

Registration gives the legal owner of an electronic circuit exclusive rights over the copying of the topography and the commercial use of the circuit.