Managing intellectual property rights (IPR) is one of the challenges facing academics and staff within universities today. IP forms the backbone of innovation, technology and commercial business and we must follow the rules to gain social and financial profit from IP. IP can be defined as:

1. Human creativity and inventiveness represented as a product or art form
2. Valuable items used within business that need protection to prevent copying by others
3. Items that can be traded for financial gain without infringing the Rights of others