Intellectual property

Intellectual property (IP, 지식재산/知識財産) refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.

Intellectual property is divided into two categories:
 * Industrial property: inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source; and
 * Copyright: 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. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs.

Key words
intellectual property rights (지식재산권/知識財産權, 지적재산권/知的財産權), WIPO, copyright, collateral

Similar Concepts
The innovations and creative expressions of indigenous and local communities are also IP, yet because they are “traditional”, they may not be fully protected by existing IP systems. Access to, and equitable benefit-sharing in, genetic resources also raise IP questions.

Normative and capacity-building programs are underway at WIPO to develop balanced and appropriate legal and practical responses to these issues. To this end, WIPO has published the following books:
 * IP and Traditional Knowledge
 * IP and Traditional Cultural Expressions/Folklore

Statutory IP Rights in Korea
Korea has positively protected the above IP rights by each specific statute. The English translations of the following Acts, except the Copyright Act, and the Enforcement Decrees thereof are available here.
 * Inventions (patents): Patent Act (특허법/特許法)
 * Utility model: Utility Model Act (실용신안법/實用新案法)
 * Trademarks: Trademark Act (상표법/商標法)
 * Industrial designs: Design Protection Act (디자인보호법/意匠法)
 * Geographic indications of source: Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act (부정경쟁방지 및 영업비밀보호에 관한 법률/不正競爭防止法)
 * Act on the Layout-Designs of Semiconductor Integrated Circuits (반도체집적회로의 배치설계에 관한 법률)
 * Copyright, computer programs and databases: Copyright Act (저작권법/著作權法).

In this connection, the Framework Act on Intellectual Property (지식재산기본법/知識財産基本法) was enacted in 2011 to promote the creation, protection and utilization of intellectual propery, and to establish the framework government policy and implementation system for the IP-oriented infrastructure, thus ensuring the maximizing the value of intellectual propery in the Korean society. Article 1 of the Act.

Collateralizing IP Rights
If the above intellectual property has significant economic value, its owner may grant the individual intellectual property right or their pool as collateral to the financiers by:
 * Creating the appropriate pledge (질권/質權) on each intellectual property right and filing such secured interest for perfection under each IPR Act;
 * Creating the specific secured interest on the pool of intellectual property rights under the Act on Security Interests in Movable Properties, Receivables, etc. (동산·채권 등의 담보에 관한 법률/動産·債權等擔保法) ; or
 * Transfering the intellectual property rights to the creditor by means of asset-based lending (ABL, 자산담보부대출/資産擔保附貸出, 재고담보대출/在庫擔保貸出).