What is Contract for intellectual property?

[Overseasmom100]

Is it something that covers you for all rights ownership of everything you write?

I think you might need to give a clear description of what you are asking and in which jurisdiction/nation you reside, OP.

There are different types of IP - copyright is the main one for writers (some might try and TM their brand/characters/world with a TM).

In general, in traditional publishing, the contract between the author and publisher sets out in a contract how the copyright can be used. Copyright exists on creation in the UK though I read a while ago it might be different in some different jurisdictions. If an author for hire creates some work, sometimes the commissioner might control the copyright (Disney pay authors who then never control the work). If you give some wider context to your question and state where you are, I or others might be able to help you, OP.

Good luck.

Published author here. In the UK, copyright exists as soon as you put pen to paper. It protects the right to print and distribute your work. There is no need to register it, although it is good practice to include a statement of your ownership of the copyright on publication. When you agree a publishing contract, you're typically granting your publisher a licence to print your words, but the legal ownership of the copyright remains with you. Copyright lasts for the whole of your lifetime, plus 70 years after your death. After that, the work is in the public domain and anyone can print and distribute it without paying a fee to the author's estate.

Copyright protects the words you wrote, in the order you wrote them. It is not possible to have copyright of an idea (so for example, when JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter, she was not infringing the copyright of Jill Murphy who wrote The Worst Witch, or Ursula Le Guin who wrote A Wizard of Earthsea).

Some extremely successful writers use other forms of IP protect\ion to protect phrases and words they have created. For example, "Harry Potter" is a registered trademark, and I believe quite a lot of the invented names and language around the Harry Potter universe are also trademarks. These are rights that have to be individually registered and regularly renewed. This is a specialist area and you would need a trademark lawyer to help you. It's not a form of protection that's really worthwhile unless your sales are huge and there are movies, merchandise etc involved too.

Hope this helps and good luck!