But from a practical standpoint, an intellectual property is any creation that can be legally protected. Patents and copyrights are one and two.
Patents protect content and copyrights protect form.
If a copyright were a chocolate cake recipe, you could give away the cake, but not the recipe. Protect your work by putting a copyright notice on it, and respect others' works by getting permission before copying and distributing it, he said. Trademarks and trade secrets are protection methods three and four. Both are rare in a university setting. The fifth form of protection is a material-transfer agreement.