Industrial property (PI) is a subject that requires a reference to intellectual property. IP is a component of intellectual property (copyright + industrial property = intellectual property) which makes it necessary to distinguish these concepts and lay down borderlines, as they can often coincide or superimpose.

The copyright laws are related to intellectual creation, artistic work, and all forms and methods of communication to the public – books, articles, drawings, paintings, musical composition and others, television programs, films, computerised systems for handling information, amongst others.

Industrial property, however, could be defined as the protection of inventions and industrial creations (in other words non-intellectual) and the distinctive signs or emblems belonging to them. This protection includes not only the right to exclusivity but also to renovation or renewal, caducity, annulment, transference and the defence of these rights.