Intellectual Property is the result of an idea both artistic or commercial that is developed over time and effort into a concept that is original, unique and potentially very valuable to its creator. Under intellectual property law creators are granted formal and exclusive protection through statutory rights to a variety of intangible assets,

Intellectual Property laws aim not only to protect the moral and economic rights of creators together with the rights of the public to access their creations but also to enable the fostering of a greater creative environment through the sharing of such results - in turn leading to higher levels of economic and social development, competitiveness, as well as fair trade.

While formal protection is provided for Industrial Property in Malta through registration at the Commerce Department, Copyright works, although not formally registered, still receive statutory protection automatically once they are placed in the public domain.

Various levels of international protection for Industrial Property also exist through regional as well as global registrations with International IP Offices that Malta is a national member of, namely:

• The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, which is the the official trade marks and designs office of the European Union registering the Community trade mark (CTM) and registered Community design (RCD).
• The European Patent Organisation, which is the intergovernmental organisation providing Patent protection throughout its current 36 Member States.  The European Patent Organisation is not legally bound to the European Union has several members which are not themselves EU states.
• The World Intellectual Property Organisation, which is the United Nations organisation dedicated to ensuring that the rights of creators and owners of intellectual property are protected worldwide and that inventors and authors are thus recognised and rewarded for their ingenuity

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