Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets. Intellectual property law involves advising and assisting individuals and businesses on the development, use, and protection of intellectual property -- which includes ideas, artistic creations, engineering processes, scientific inventions, and more.
Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and continues to grow. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that Asheville's population in 2008 was 78,543. Asheville is a part of the four-county Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area, the population of which was estimated by the Census Bureau in 2008 to be 408,436.