When another party attempts to violate your IP rights, it's called infringement, or misappropriation when referring specifically to trade secrets. IP violations are civil or criminal matters depending on the type of IP protection infringed upon and the severity of the violation. Enforcing intellectual property violations isn't always easy, but you can prepare yourself to fight violations with proper knowledge of how different violations are handled. IP violations for the four main types of intellectual property protections vary. Mostly civil matters, they can rise to criminal offenses if malicious intent or purposeful harm is shown as a result of the infringement or misappropriation.