5.8 Protection of a company's intangible property rights
The value of a business enterprise can be measured not only by the value of its physical assets,such as land and buildings:increasingly,the value of a business reflects its investment in new product development and strong brand images.To protect a company from imitators benefiting from this investment,but bearing none of its cost,a number of legal protections are available.The most commonly used methods are patents and trademarks,which are described below.Intellectual property can also be protected through copyright (for example, the unauthorized copying and sale of DVD films is a breach of copyright).