Industrial property rights

... offer the owner a monopoly position and allow competitors to be (temporarily) excluded from a certain market segment. Intellectual property rights (e.g. patents, utility models, trademarks or designs) thus open up the opportunity for special profits which would not be achievable in a market situation not changed by property rights due to the prevailing competition.

An industrial property right is granted as a reward for a special intellectual and industrial achievement and is intended to create an incentive for innovative business activity.

Industrial property rights are generally understood to be the rights that can be obtained to certain results of intellectual development achievements (they are therefore also referred to as special protection rights or monopoly rights). In most cases, industrial property rights can only be obtained at the express request of the owner and by a subsequent sovereign act of granting. Active action is therefore required even before the property rights are exploited.