when someone creates a product that is viewed as original and required significant mental activity to create this product becomes an intellectual property that must be protected from unauthorized duplication examples of unique creations include 
one safeguard that can be used to legally protect an original creation is copyright under copyright law a work is considered original if the author created it from independent thinking void of duplication this type of work is known as an original work of authorship owa anyone with an original work of authorship automatically has the copyright to that work preventing anyone else from using or replicating it the copyright can be registered voluntarily by the original owner if they would like to get an upper hand in the legal system if the need arises the copyright to your original work belongs to you even if you don t register it with the government however you will need a registered copyright if you are bringing legal action for infringement not all types of work can be copyrighted a copyright does not protect ideas discoveries concepts or theories brand names logos slogans domain names and titles also cannot be protected under copyright law for an original work to be copyrighted it has to be in tangible form this means that any speech discoveries musical scores or ideas have to be written down in physical form in order to be protected by copyright in the united states original owners are protected by copyright laws all of their lives until 70 years after their death if the original author of the copyrighted material is a corporation the copyright protection period is 95 years from the date of publication or 120 years whichever expires first u s copyright law has experienced a number of amendments and changes that have altered the duration of copyright protection the life of the author plus 70 years protection can be attributed to the 1998 copyright term extension act also known as the mickey mouse protection act or sonny bono act which generally increased copyright protections by 20 years copyright protection varies from country to country and can stand for 50 to 100 years after the individual s death depending on the country copyright vs trademarks and patentswhile copyright law is not all encompassing other laws such as patent and trademark laws may impose additional sanctions although copyrights trademarks and patents are frequently used interchangeably they offer different forms of protection for intellectual property trademark laws protect material that is used to distinguish an individual s or corporation s work from another entity these materials include words phrases or symbols such as logos slogans and brand names that copyright laws do not cover patents cover inventions for a limited period of time patented materials include products such as industrial processes machines and chemical positions 