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.
Germanton is an unincorporated community in Forsyth and Stokes counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina, primarily in Stokes County. It is located approximately ten miles south-southwest of the Stokes County seat of Danbury, on North Carolina State Highway 65 at an altitude of 662 feet. Germanton was the county seat of Stokes County prior to Forsyth County being created from southern Stokes. Germanton was then centrally located in the middle of Stokes. Germanton was established in 1790 and is the oldest settlement in Stokes County. The town's 23 original acres were part of a 700-acre (2.8 km) tract that was granted to Jacob Lash by the Earl of Granville in 1762. American Revolutionary War Major Joseph Winston and later U.S. Congressman was a famous Germanton resident with a plantation nearby. Coal was mined in the Germanton area but was of low quality.