Kaneda Copyright Agency {top}

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Copyright FAQ {top}

{FAQ} What is “industrial property (right)”?

Although other types of intellectual property also exist, intellectual property, in general, has been divided into two branches: one is “industrial” property, which includes among others inventions (patents), trademarks and industrial designs; the other is “copyright,” which protects literary and artistic works*[1].
A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a particular problem. Protection of inventions under patent law does not require that the invention be represented in a physical form.
On the other hand, copyright law protects only the form (embodiment) of expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves. Copyright law protects the author of literary and artistic works against those who copy or otherwise take and use the form in which the original work has been expressed by the author. Legal protection under copyright law prevents only unauthorized use of the expressions of ideas.
Protection under patent law gives an inventor a monopoly right in the exploitation of an invention for certain duration, and so the invention is supposed to be made officially known to the public; the protected invention must be disclosed in an official register, open to the public. In contrast, under copyright law, official registration of works is, in principle, not a condition for protection.

*[1] Literary and artistic works include books, music, works of fine arts such as paintings and sculptures, and technology-based works such as computer programs and electronic databases.