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You do not have to read Learn from the beginning. Start with something you are curious about, something you are making, or something that has happened. Skip what you already understand, follow a side path, and stop when you have what you need.

80 articles

Not sure where to begin? Start with 10 questions to ask yourself about intellectual property: read its ten questions first, then the explanations. The answer that surprises you points to what to read next.

You do not have to read Learn from the beginning. Start with something you are curious about, something you are making, or something that has happened. Skip what you already understand, follow a side path, and stop when you have what you need.

Read with an AI

Members can ask Tilly about any article; Tilly cites the articles it relies on.

Copy this prompt into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any assistant that can open web pages. It will use this map to suggest what to read and work through articles with you.

Quiero aprender sobre propiedad intelectual (PI) con la colección gratuita Aprender de IPRights4All. Por favor:
1. Abre el mapa de Aprender en https://iprights4all.com/es/learn. Enumera estas secuencias de lectura:
- Start with what you already believe: https://iprights4all.com/es/learn#start
- Creating and protecting: https://iprights4all.com/es/learn#creating
- Someone used my work: https://iprights4all.com/es/learn#used-my-work
- Someone says I infringed: https://iprights4all.com/es/learn#accused
- Using other work and making things with AI: https://iprights4all.com/es/learn#using
- Earning from or sharing your work: https://iprights4all.com/es/learn#earning
- Looking after what you have: https://iprights4all.com/es/learn#looking-after
- Helping a community learn: https://iprights4all.com/es/learn#community
2. Pregúntame qué me da curiosidad, qué estoy creando o qué ha ocurrido, y luego sugiere dos o tres artículos del mapa que encajen, con una razón de una frase para cada uno. Abre todos los artículos en los que te basas e indícame qué páginas leíste; si no puedes abrir una página, dilo.
3. Cuando elija un artículo, trabájalo conmigo: explícalo en lenguaje sencillo y comprueba que lo entiendo antes de continuar. En un artículo de «10 preguntas», déjame responder las preguntas antes de mostrar las explicaciones.
4. Mantén separada la educación general del asesoramiento jurídico. Dime con claridad cuándo algo depende de mi país o de mis hechos concretos, y cuándo debería hablar con un abogado de propiedad intelectual o un agente de patentes o marcas cualificado.
5. Responde en español. Cuando uses un término jurídico, indica también entre paréntesis el término que se usa en el idioma del país correspondiente.

Avoid sharing unpublished inventions or confidential business details with any online service.

For AI assistants reading with a visitor: use this map to find relevant articles and sequences. Follow the visitor’s interests, let them consider the reflective questions before showing the answers if they wish, and explain why a suggested article may help. Open the articles you rely on and say when a page is unavailable. Treat country-specific rules as country-specific.

Suggested reading sequences

Start with what you already believe

Begin here if IP feels remote or you are curious about what you may already have.

  1. 10 questions to ask yourself about intellectual propertyinglésYou probably already own intellectual property, and some of it is protected the moment you make it. Ten questions to find out what you have.
  2. The intellectual property you made before breakfastinglésThe photo, the newsletter paragraph and the script you wrote this morning can already be protected by copyright. Here is how to tell, and who owns them.
  3. You may already have copyrightinglésIn the U.S., copyright starts the moment you save, write down or record original work. No form creates it. Registration is a separate step that decides whether you can sue and what you can recover.
  4. One project can contain several kinds of IPinglésTake one real project apart and you find copyright, a trademark, possible patents and a trade secret, each with its own next step.

Optional side paths: Owning a thing and owning its rights; What happens to a good idea before it becomes IP; Learning about IP with your own AI

Creating and protecting

For a project you are making, publishing, naming or launching. Start with the shared decisions, then follow the branch that fits the part of the project.

  1. 10 questions before you try to protect your workinglésTen common beliefs about protecting creative work, brands and inventions, what U.S. law actually says about each, and the next step to take.
  2. Before you publish or launchinglésA launch releases several things at once: a name, a logo, photographs, a product design. Sort each one by who made it and which right covers it, then make the few decisions that cannot be undone after launch day.
  3. One project can contain several kinds of IPinglésTake one real project apart and you find copyright, a trademark, possible patents and a trade secret, each with its own next step.
  4. Who owns work made by employees and freelancersinglésPaying for work does not make you its owner. An employee's work belongs to the employer; a freelancer's work stays with the freelancer until a signed agreement says otherwise. Settle it in writing before the work starts.
  5. Creating something with a cofounder or collaboratoringlésBefore you build something together, list who made what, put every transfer in a signed writing, and agree how licensing, income and departures will work. Settle it while you are still excited, not when one of you wants out.

Writing and creative work

  1. You may already have copyrightinglés
  2. Your first U.S. copyright applicationinglés

Names and brands

  1. Choosing a name you can grow withinglés
  2. From trademark search to U.S. applicationinglés
  3. Keeping a U.S. trademark registration aliveinglés

Inventions and product design

  1. Before you show an invention to the worldinglés
  2. Finding your way through the patent processinglés
  3. When the shape of a product mattersinglés

Private know-how

  1. Keeping valuable know-how a secretinglés

Optional side paths: What a timestamp can and cannot prove; The software you write and the software you borrow; When your product is a dataset; Research and inventions made at a university

Someone used my work

For finding your work in an unexpected place. Understand the facts and choose an outcome before you report, contact, negotiate or seek advice.

  1. 10 questions when you think someone copied your workinglésTen questions to answer before you act on a copy of your work, what U.S. law says about each, and the next step to take.
  2. You found your work somewhere unexpectedinglésBefore you send a takedown or an angry email, find out how your work got there: trace the licenses and transfers, confirm who owns which right, check your registration and the dates, then choose the smallest response that gets you the result you want.
  3. Saving evidence while the facts are still availableinglésCapture the whole page before it changes, keep the originals untouched, save the permission history and every message, and label it all so a stranger can follow the story, including the parts that do not help you.
  4. When two things look alikeinglésLooking alike is a clue, not a verdict. Split the comparison by right: copyright asks what expression was taken, trademark asks whether customers are likely to be confused, and a patent asks whether the product falls within the claims.
  5. What would a good resolution look likeinglésDecide what result you want (removal, credit, payment, a license or a decision) before you choose a step, because each step can deliver only some of them.
  6. How platform reports and takedowns workinglésPick the report that matches the problem, know what you swear to when you send a copyright takedown, and know what can happen next: a claim, a strike, a retraction or a counter-notice.
  7. Small claims and mediation for an IP disputeinglésThe Copyright Claims Board decides a copyright claim and can award up to $30,000; a mediator decides nothing and helps you reach a deal. Check who can use each, what it can decide, and the deadlines before you choose.

Optional side paths: How fair use works in the United States; The terms that decide how a deal will feel later; Your first conversation with an IP professional

Someone says I infringed

For receiving an allegation, platform complaint or demand: tell a claim, a process and an actual decision apart.

  1. 10 questions when someone says you infringed their rightsinglésA complaint is someone's position, not a verdict. Ten assumptions people make when accused of copyright or trademark infringement, and what to do instead.
  2. Reading a demand letter without assuming it is a verdictinglésA demand letter is the sender's claim, not a ruling. Check who sent it, what it asserts and whether any deadline is real before you reply, pay or sign.
  3. Saving evidence while the facts are still availableinglésCapture the whole page before it changes, keep the originals untouched, save the permission history and every message, and label it all so a stranger can follow the story, including the parts that do not help you.
  4. Responding to a platform complaint or counter-noticeinglésFind out which kind of complaint you received, check what you actually published, pick the response that fits your facts, and know what a counter-notice commits you to before you sign it.
  5. Finding help when defending yourself feels unaffordableinglésYou rarely need someone to run the whole dispute on day one. Find your deadline, name the one question you need answered, and take it to a free or limited-scope service that covers your kind of claim.
  6. Small claims and mediation for an IP disputeinglésThe Copyright Claims Board decides a copyright claim and can award up to $30,000; a mediator decides nothing and helps you reach a deal. Check who can use each, what it can decide, and the deadlines before you choose.

Optional side paths: What a license is actually letting you do; How fair use works in the United States; Your first conversation with an IP professional

Using other work and making things with AI

For using images, music, writing, code or AI tools in your own work: permission, exceptions and the intended use.

  1. 10 questions before you use someone else’s workinglésTen questions to answer before you reuse an image, a quotation, a song or an AI output, and what to check before you publish.
  2. Found online does not mean free to useinglésWhere you found a work tells you nothing about whether you may use it. Trace it to its owner, match the permission to your exact use, and keep the record.
  3. What a license is actually letting you doinglésA license covers the uses it names and nothing more. Read the grant against your actual plan, check the limits and conditions, confirm the licensor owns what they licensed, and get a new permission in writing when the plan changes.
  4. How to ask for permissioninglésFind the person who controls the right you need, ask for one specific use of one specific work, and get the answer in writing before you rely on it.
  5. How fair use works in the United StatesinglésFair use has no safe percentage. Weigh the four factors in section 107 against the one specific use you plan, and ask for permission when the answer is unclear.
  6. Finding out whether something is in the public domaininglésPin down the exact version, check its dates against the U.S. term rules, search the Copyright Office records, and keep what you find. An old story can sit inside a newer translation or recording that is still protected.
  7. Creative Commons without the guessworkinglésEach Creative Commons license is a real permission with conditions attached. Check the source and the version, read the letters, credit the work properly, and know what the license leaves out.
  8. Making things with AIinglésCopyright in something you made with AI covers what you contributed, not what the tool generated. Sort out what you supplied, what you created and what you plan to publish before you upload, publish or register.

Optional side paths: Remixes and adaptations; Faces and voices are not just another asset; The software you write and the software you borrow; When your work is used to train AI

Earning from or sharing your work

For deciding what you want your work to do and understanding the arrangement that makes it possible. Free sharing and earning are both legitimate choices.

  1. 10 questions before you try to earn from or share your IPinglésBefore you license, sell or give away your work, check the assumptions you are bringing to the deal. Ten questions, with direct answers.
  2. What do you want your work to do for you?inglésDecide what you want a piece of work to do for you before you weigh any offer: then choose to use it yourself, license it, sell it or share it openly.
  3. Licensing your work and selling your rightsinglésYou can give someone room to use your work without treating every arrangement as an outright sale.
  4. The terms that decide how a deal will feel lateringlésThe clause that matters most may be the one that answers an ordinary question about next year.
  5. Following the money in a royalty dealinglésCompare royalty offers by following one sale through each contract to the money that reaches you, not by comparing the percentages.
  6. The work after a deal is signedinglésTurn a signed license into a routine: a one-page summary, both sides' duties on a list, statements checked on arrival, every change in writing, and dated reminders for renewal and ending.

Optional side paths: What might your IP be worth; Sharing your work openly on purpose; What happens to IP when a business is sold or someone dies; Can IP help you get financing

Looking after what you have

For looking after a collection of work, rights, agreements and records over time, however small.

  1. 10 questions about the IP you already haveinglésTen questions to find out what your IP portfolio holds, who owns it, which dates are coming, and who should see what.
  2. Starting an IP inventory you will actually useinglésBuild a six-column inventory of the work, permissions and agreements behind one project, link the proof, and keep secrets out of it.
  3. Following the ownership trailinglésTrace who owns each piece of a project, and what was signed along the way, before you promise anyone a licence.
  4. Keeping dates and obligations from slippinginglésGive every IP date a verified source, an earlier working date, one named person and a follow-up check, so a reminder that never arrives does not cost you a registration or a patent.
  5. Showing your portfolio to the right personinglésShow each person the work and rights facts their decision needs, and hold confidential detail back until there is an agreement to protect it.
  6. An annual check on the work you still care aboutinglésOnce a year, compare what you make with what you have recorded, decide which rights are worth their next fee, and give every open item a name and a date.

Optional side paths: Updating names and ownership in official records; Looking after the records behind your rights; The work after a deal is signed; What happens to IP when a business is sold or someone dies

Helping a community learn

For organizers, creative groups, business support organizations and legal professionals running educational sessions.

  1. 10 questions before you help a community learn about IPinglésTen questions to answer before you run an IP session for a community, and what to do about each one: roles, goals, privacy, plain language, community knowledge and referrals.
  2. Helping people see their own work differentlyinglésStart with what people make and what they want to happen with it; the IP questions follow from there.
  3. A practical IP workshop in an houringlésA minute-by-minute plan for a one-hour IP session built on one ten-question article and one fictional example, ending with each person choosing what to read next.
  4. Making IP learning accessible across language and experienceinglésExplain the situation before the term, use examples people already know, and give everyone more than one way to read, hear and take part.
  5. Helping someone find the right kind of supportinglésFind out what the person needs answered, match it to the kind of help that answers it, check the provider is allowed to do the work, and leave the choice with them.
  6. Making an introduction with the person’s permissioninglésAsk before you introduce, share only what the person approves, and leave them in control of their story.
  7. How to tell whether an IP workshop helpedinglésJudge the session by what became clearer for participants, not by attendance or applause, and use what you learn to change the next one.

Optional side paths: Community knowledge and the limits of individual ownership; Finding reliable IP information in your country

Every article

Start with what you already believe

Creating and protecting

Using other work and working with AI

When a dispute or complaint appears

Earning from or sharing your work

Looking after what you have

Helping a community learn

Finding explanations and support

About this collection

Eighty articles written from primary sources: government offices, statutes, WIPO and platform help pages. Each article states its legal scope and the date its sources were last checked, and shows who reviewed it. General information, not legal advice; IP law differs between countries and changes over time.