This unique book about intellectual property (IP) is aimed not only at law students studying the subject, but at interested users of IP, including business people, inventors, scientists, designers, and others. The book not only provides an outline of the basic legal principles of IP, but also shows how the system actually works. One cannot understand chess by merely learning the rules, one must know how the game is played - so, also, with IP. To achieve its objective, the book deliberately avoids technicalities and keeps things simple, yet direct. There are no footnotes to distract. Cases are referred to in a concise, accessible manner. All the major areas of IP - patents, trade marks, copyright, and design - are covered, along with brief mention of other rights, such as those in plant varieties and databases. A novice reader of this book should come away both with a clear outline of IP law and a feeling for how it works. Students will be able to put their more detailed study into perspective. Users will be able to understand better how IP affects them and their businesses. Previously published by Sweet & Maxwell as A Guidebook to Intellectual Property: Patents, Trade Marks, Copyright and Designs (ISBN 978 0 421 79980 6; 2003), this sixth edition is now available from Hart Publishing, Oxford.