Intellectual Property (IP) is a broad term for the legal regimes that protect an individual’s or business’s creativity or innovation. In the horticultural industry, this may relate to a range of patents, plant breeder’s rights, trade marks and copyright. IP rights are commonly referred to as ‘intangible’ rights, meaning that they do not create rights in physical or tangible products, but the ideas and inventive concepts within them. Although it is not always the case, there are usually two main distinctions between types of IP, these being rights that are:

• Created – rights that come into existence once the subject matter is created (e.g. copyright)
• Registered – rights that come into existence once the owner has gone through the proper administrative process to register them (e.g. patents and plant breeder’s rights)

Protecting IP and the R&D tax incentive