Intellectual Property and Digital Signature

Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual property rights are the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.
Types of Intellectual Property

• Copyright:
  Copyright is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works.

• Patents:
  Patent provides the patent owner with the right to decide how- or whether- the invention can be used by others.

• Trademark:
  A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises.

• Trade Secret:
  Trade secrets are IP rights on confidential information which may be sold or licensed.

Digital Signature
Digital signature is simply a small block of data attached to documents you sign. Digital signature law provides a legal framework to facilitate and safeguard electronic transcation in the electronic medium. Digital signatures are commonly used for software distribution, finanical transactions, etc. It is necessary because:
• It added security.
• It maintains a high standard.
• It has global acceptance and legal compliance.

A digital signature scheme typically consists of three algorithms:
1. A key generation algorithm:
This algorithm randomly produces a pair of public keys and private keys, where the private key is used to generate signatures and the public key is used to verify the signature.

2. A signing algorithm:
This algorithm takes a message and private key as input and produces a signature that can be attached with documents.

3. A signature verifying algorithm:
This algorithm takes the message and public key as input and verifies the validity of the attached signature. It either accepts or rejects the signature.