What is intellectual property (IP)?

Intellectual property (IP) refers to the legal rights that protect creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, symbols, names, and images used in commerce. It encompasses a range of creative outputs that require legal protection to safeguard them from unauthorized use or infringement. This legal framework encourages innovation and creativity by ensuring that creators can control and benefit from their creations. By recognizing the importance of IP, businesses and individual creators are incentivized to develop new ideas, which is crucial in fields such as technology, art, and design.

The other options do not accurately capture the essence of IP. While a physical asset used in manufacturing is important for production processes, it does not represent the creative and legal aspects associated with intellectual property. Regulatory requirements for design pertain to compliance with standards and regulations, not specifically to the legal protections of creative works. A specific type of manufacturing technique may relate to practical aspects of production but does not encompass the broader and more abstract concept of intellectual property.