Brown W M
Taro Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., Hawthorne, NY.
Methods Mol Med. 2000;40:227-41. doi: 10.1385/1-59259-076-4:227.
"Intellectual property" (IP) is a generic legal term for patents, copyrights, and trademarks, all of which provide legal rights to protect ideas, the expression of ideas, and the inventors of such ideas (1). Intellectual property has many of the characteristics of real property (houses, buildings, and so forth); intellectual property can be bought, sold, assigned, and licensed. Additionally, the owner of IP can prevent "trespass" on his property by others, though in IP this is referred to as infringement. A patent provides legal protection for a new invention, that is, an application of a new idea, discovery, or concept that is useful. Copyright provides legal protection from copying for any creative work (e.g., works of art, literature [fiction ornonfiction], music, lyrics, photographs), as well as business and scientific publications, computer software, and compilations of information. A trademark provides rights to use symbols, particular words, logos, or other markings that indicate the source of a product or service. A further method of benefitting from an invention is simply to keep it secret, rather than to disclose it; the most famous trade secret of all time is the formula for Coca-Cola, still a closely guarded secret to this day (2,3). Trade secrets have the advantage that they never expire, but special measures are required to ensure the continued secrecy, and should it be violated, there is little legal protection for the owner (2,3).
“知识产权”（IP）是专利、版权和商标的通用法律术语，所有这些都提供法律权利来保护思想、思想的表达以及这些思想的发明者（1）。知识产权具有许多不动产（房屋、建筑物等）的特征；知识产权可以买卖、转让和许可。此外，知识产权所有者可以防止他人“侵犯”其财产，尽管在知识产权领域这被称为侵权。专利为新发明提供法律保护，即对有用的新思想、发现或概念的应用。版权为任何创造性作品（如艺术作品、文学作品[小说或非小说]、音乐、歌词、照片）以及商业和科学出版物、计算机软件和信息汇编提供防止复制的法律保护。商标赋予使用符号、特定词语、标识或其他表明产品或服务来源的标记的权利。从一项发明中获益的另一种方法就是简单地对其保密，而不是公开它；有史以来最著名的商业秘密就是可口可乐的配方，至今仍是严加保守的秘密（2,3）。商业秘密的优势在于它们永远不会过期，但需要采取特殊措施来确保持续保密，而且如果被侵犯，所有者几乎没有法律保护（2,3）。
