Types of IP

The kinds of intellectual property that exist are often split up in two different manners.  One way is to split between those that require registration and those that do not; another way is to split between those that protect innovation, and those that protect perspiration.

Those types of intellectual property that are registered (including patents, registered designs and registered trade marks) protect the owner of the registration from any third-party use of the intellectual property for which they have a registration, no matter whether the other person has copied the registered right or not.  The types that do not require registration (including copyright, unregistered designs, unregistered trade marks and the database right) require the other party to have copied the right which the owner says has been infringed.

Alternatively, you can think of intellectual property as protecting innovation (inventions often via patents and designs, the appearance of products via designs, creative works via copyright) and perspiration (such as the build-up of business by reference to a name or other elements by means of the law of passing-off, or the effort and investment in creating a database by way of the database right). 

At the edges there are some other laws which can come into play, such as the law of privacy, confidential information and libel.  These laws are important as part of the overall mix of rights which can be used to protect the interests of a business.