Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

What does Copyright mean? In legal practice, copyright protects how original creative works are used, licensed and monetised. It is a statutory intellectual property right that arises automatically on creation (no registration) and gives the owner exclusive rights to copy, issue copies to the public, perform, show or play, communicate to the public and adapt the work. Across England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, copyright is defined and governed by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. In Ireland, it is governed by the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000. Protected subject matter includes literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, films, sound recordings,...

International IP: protection, trade marks, patents, licensing, competition law, digital business, sector focus, disputes and enforcement, with guides to China, US, Singapore and Hong Kong

Published by a LexisNexis IP expert

Practice notes

Introduction

Cross-border activity involving intellectual property is gaining ever greater significance, as even the smallest enterprises can find themselves trading across multiple legal systems worldwide in today’s digital era.

Types of IP rights

There are certain IP rights for which protection can be secured in most leading markets across the globe, notably Copyright, patents and trade marks. The Lexology Panoramic reports explore the scope, Enforcement and potential disposal of these three categories across dozens of key jurisdictions, including the US, Japan, China and major South American nations. See:

Lexology Panoramic: Copyright
Lexology Panoramic: Patents
Lexology Panoramic: Trade marks

Other rights safeguarding specific forms of creativity are confined to particular countries and are by no means universally adopted. Examples include actions for ‘Passing off’ (an English Common law tort), claims for ‘unfair competition’ (available in some continental European systems, for instance, but distinct from proceedings for breaches of antitrust law), and protection of industrial designs, which varies markedly—such as unregistered and registered design rights in the UK, utility models in Japan, and design patents in the USA. See: Lexology Panoramic: Designs...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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