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.
Greenville is the seat of Greenville County, in upstate South Carolina, United States. One of the principal cities of the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), it had a population of 56,006 at the 2000 census. The metropolitan area had an estimated population of 601,986 in 2006. Greenville is the largest city of the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson Combined Statistical Area (CSA) which in 2006 had an estimated population of 1,203,795. The CSA, an 8-county region of northwestern South Carolina, is known as "The Upstate. " Greenville is located approximately halfway between Atlanta, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina along Interstate 85, and its metropolitan area also includes Interstates 185 and 385.