1. Main characteristics of intellectual property
Intellectual property has the following main characteristics: First, intellectual property is essentially the intangible property of mental workers. By rationally utilizing intellectual property, mental workers can obtain corresponding benefits; second, intellectual property is exclusive to the individual or organization that created it; third, intellectual property is only valid within a certain time frame. The term of intellectual property varies from country to country and even for different types of creations. For example, the term of invention patents in my country is 20 years, the term of design patents and utility model patents is 10 years, and the term of copyright is the author’s lifetime and 50 years after his death; fourth, intellectual property has a regional characteristic, and many contents are only effective within a certain geographical scope; fifth, some intellectual property needs to be declared through certain legal procedures and will only be protected by intellectual property after approval, such as corporate trademarks.
2. Legal restrictions on intellectual property
Although intellectual property is a private right and the law recognizes its exclusive monopoly, it is not suitable for anyone to monopolize it for a long time because the intellectual achievements of human beings are highly public and closely related to the development of social culture and industry. Therefore, the law sets many restrictions on intellectual property: First, from the perspective of the occurrence of rights, the law stipulates various positive and negative conditions and methods of publicity. For example, the occurrence of patent rights must be subject to application, examination and approval, and various conditions are stipulated for inventions, utility models and designs that are granted patent rights (Article 22 and Article 23 of the Patent Law), and patent rights are not granted for certain matters (Article 25 of the Patent Law). Although copyright does not have restrictions such as application, examination and registration, it also has restrictions in Articles 3 and 5 of the Copyright Law. Second, the law has special provisions on the duration of rights. This is a big difference between intellectual property and ownership. Third, the right holder has certain obligations to use or implement. The law stipulates a compulsory license or compulsory implementation license system, and the law stipulates a reasonable use system for the right of good works.
3. Legal characteristics of intellectual property
From a legal perspective, intellectual property has three most obvious legal characteristics: First, the territoriality of intellectual property, that is, unless there are international conventions or bilateral or multilateral agreements, the rights obtained under the laws of a country are only valid within the territory of that country and are protected by the laws of that country; second, the exclusivity of intellectual property, that is, only the right holder can enjoy it, and others cannot exercise the rights without the permission of the right holder; third, the timeliness of intellectual property, the laws of various countries stipulate a certain period for intellectual property, and the rights will automatically terminate after the expiration of the period.