Intellectual property infringement

An intellectual property (IP) infringement or an intellectual property theft is the unauthorized use, exploitation, or violation of an intellectual property right. There are several types of intellectual property rights, such as brands, copyrights, patents, trademarks, industrial designs, holding and parent companies, plant breeders rights, products, publishers, and trade secrets. Therefore, an intellectual property infringement may for instance be one of the following:

• Copyright infringement, encompassing for example a software copyright infringement
• Patent infringement
• Trademark infringement
• Design infringement
• Cybersquatting
• Biopiracy