Final answer:
Intellectual property refers to legal protections for creations of the mind, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, giving exclusive rights to creators.
Step-by-step explanation:
Intellectual property refers to the legal protections given to the creations of the mind, encompassing patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. These protections grant the creator exclusive rights to use, market, and benefit from their inventions or works. Patents safeguard inventions and new discoveries, trademarks protect brand identifiers such as logos and slogans, copyrights cover artistic and literary works, and trade secrets consist of confidential information, such as formulas, that could give a business a competitive edge. Governments around the world maintain laws to defend intellectual property rights and these laws are subject to ongoing international negotiations for harmonization under organizations like the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).