Intellectual property, sometimes abbreviated IP, is a legal definition of ideas, inventions (like those generated in laboratory research), artistic works and other commercially viable products created out of one's own mental processes. In the same sense that real estate titles and bills of sale establish ownership of tangible items, intellectual property is protected by such legal means as patents, copyrights, and trademark registrations. Intellectual property is generally handled in the same way as any other tangible product or piece of real estate. Not every idea inside a person's mind can be considered intellectual property, which can only be a good thing in some instances. There is usually a commercial viability angle which needs proper protection to prevent theft of the idea or outright copyright infringement.
IP is divided into two categories: Industrial Property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source; and Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs.
The Spanish law terms this aforementioned concept of ownership of innovative ideas as “Ley de Propiedad Intelectual e Industrial”, and defines it as “a set of exclusive rights protecting the innovative activity behind new products, new procedures or new designs, and the commercial activity that exclusively identifies products and services supplied in the market”.