What is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property (IP) is an enforceable proprietary right that protects creative ideas in the form of inventions, brands, designs, and artistic, musical, and literary works. Protecting these expressions of the mind provides the creator with the valuable rights associated with property, such as ownership, exclusive rights of use, and associated economic benefits. IP protection is predominantly governed by federal legislation, including four principal federal statutes: Trademarks Act, Copyright Act, Patent Act, and Industrial Design Act.
What is IP Fraud?
IP-related “fraud” is currently practiced in many different ways and is evolving as new schemes and enabling technologies are devised. For example, rights holders might be induced to register with an illegitimate registration service or be the victim of domestic and cross-border pirating and counterfeiting. Right holders might also fall prey to invention-promotion scams, in which inventors are lured to pay for fraudulent development or promotion of their invention which never occurs. “Domain slamming” is a scam in which the internet service provider or domain name registrar attempts to trick customers of different companies into switching from their existing internet service provider to an illegitimate one under the pretence that they are renewing their subscription. It is exceedingly important to be wary of solicitation schemes that offer these and other types of illusory benefits.
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