In the modern economy, the most valuable assets are often not physical things like factories or machines, but intangible creations of the human mind.Intellectual Property (IP) is the legal field dedicated to protecting these creations, providing creators with a limited monopoly over their work to incentivize innovation and creativity. While the field is vast, it is built upon four main pillars, each designed to protect a different type of intangible asset: patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.

Patents are designed to protect inventions. A patent grants an inventor the exclusive right to make, use, and sell their invention for a limited period, typically 20 years. In exchange for this monopoly, the inventor must publicly disclose the details of the invention in the patent application. There are generally three types of patents: utility patents (for new and useful processes, machines, or compositions of matter), design patents (for new, original, and ornamental designs for a manufactured article), and plant patents. To be patentable, an invention must be novel, useful, and non-obvious.