Intellectual property rights (IPRs) are legal property rights over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets. [Source: Wikipedia]
IPRs must be addressed in ICT research projects, to clarify the ownership of joint creations, developments etc. and their exploitation. They are most often part of the Consortium Agreement (an agreement to be signed between all partners and the project coordinator at the beginning of the project), and in the exploitation plan. More on IPR issues in EU projects can be found at the IPR Helpdesk.
For IPRs in e-business, consult the www.lexelerator.eu
IPR is addressed in the ICT work programme 2011/12 under the following challenges/ objectives:
Future Internet Public Private Partnership (FI-PPP)
> Challenge 4: Technologies for Digital Content and Languages
Objective ICT-2011.4.1 SME initiative on Digital Content and Languages
