Intellectual property rights allows individuals ownership of research, innovation and ideas, in the same way that physical property can be owned. The UK government’s website on Intellectual Property (IP) outlines four main types of IP as:

• patents for inventions
• trade marks for brand identity
• designs for product appearance - of the whole or a part of a product
• copyright for material - literary and artistic material, music, films, sound recordings and broadcasts, including software and multimedia

This site provides information about the rights of university students and patenting rights. A useful list for research students to check with respect to avoiding plagiarism is provided by the generic research skills programme at the University of Ulster.