The IPR-Helpdesk team intends to widen the scope of these pages to cover international practice as well as the peculiarities in each European Member State. Industrial property rights ensure exclusive use in commerce and industry. Patents or utility models for inventions can be obtained as a means of ensuring the protection of technical inventions. The subject of such an industrial property right could be, for example, a product or manufacturing process. Industrial models or design, on the other hand, protect the aesthetic qualities that are expressed in the particular shape or form of a certain product, device, or whatever.
Trade marks deal with the protection of marketing assets such as brands or the names of firms.
It is often the case that several different types of property rights are applicable to a single product. The example of a computer mouse is a good illustration. The specific technical workings may possibly be protected by a patent or a utility model, and the external ergonomic form, which can be angular, oval, round, or spherical, etc., could be subject to an industrial design. The name regularly applied on the mouse could be a registered trade mark. Copyright is included in the second branch of intellectual property.