The right to property is a fundamental right. While everybody is well aware about material property through daily life, intellectual property is often not so obvious, because it is intangible. However, intangibles may have tremendous value, think about famous trademarks or copyright on software or artist’s creations.

In order to encourage fair competition and innovation, most States have provided for legal protection of Intellectual Property Rights. Most common types of registered intellectual property include patents, utility models, designs and trademarks. Other rights such as trade secrets and copyrights are typically unregistered but are protected by law.  

In the field of technology, major businesses owe their development and growth to the competitive advantage provided by intellectual property, namely being able to prevent others from commercializing patented products and preserving their trade secrets.