Legal Issues continuation:

Plagiarism :
in its simplest example, is taking someone’s work and passing it off as your own. An example of this is copying and pasting from a website without properly crediting the author.
Another type of plagiarism is when the author incorrectly cites a source by accident, however even though it has been an accident, it is still considered a form of plagiarism.
Plagiarism can simply be avoided by being honest and making sure the sources cited are correct. A business plagiarizing someone can be liable for a court case which will definitely hurt the business reputation and by that also hurt the business income.

Intellectual property:

is a misleading title because the laws surrounding it talk about both physical assets and ideas as Intellectual property. Intellectual property rights fall principally into four main areas; copyright, trademarks, design rights and patents.

Copyright :

protects the creator of a piece of work. This might be a write of an original song or designer of a database. Their works must require skill and use of their judgment, then their works falls under the copyright protection law.

Trademark:
You can register your trade mark to protect your brand, eg the name of your product or service.
When you register your trade mark, you’ll be able to:

• Take legal action against anyone who uses your brand without your permission, including counterfeiters.
• Put the ® symbol next to your brand - to show that it’s yours and warn others against using it.
• Sell and license your brand

Patent:

This is a short term right granted by the government to the creator of an idea, to manufacture the product. When the patent is accepted it becomes the asset of the inventor so it can be sold or given out. A lot of companies that patent sell rights to other companies for manufacturing of the product.

Registered Design:

Design right applies to things like engine configurations, for example, and protection for a maximum of 15 years even without applying for it. They
protect the user who uses existing “pieces” to design something new/in a new arrangement. They also stop anyone else using that design unless the designer grants them permission to use it.