Today intellectual property is one of the most significant social rights that, by their scale and influence, gains ever greater significance in the development of modern society. In a contemporary environment, the protection and application of intellectual property plays a significant role in the successful development of innovation and business development in general. Knowledge and information as products of human intellect are intangible goods, the value of which is duplication, usage and presentation to other people. In order to protect this kind of goods, an appropriate system of intellectual property protection has been developed. The contemporary system of intellectual property protection covers copyright and related rights and industrial property rights. Copyright is linked to artistic creativity, such as books, music, paintings, sculptures and movies. Industrial property rights include patents, trademarks, industrial design, geographic origin and designations of origin, and topography of semiconductor products. Intellectual property is not a concrete, material property over some subject, but a right, or a set of authorizations recognized by the legal order of the country to the intellectual property holder. What authorities and how they are exercised depends on the type of work that is being protected and the legal system in which protection is sought. In the Croatian Republic that system is the State Institute of Intellectual Property which cooperates with international and European institutions, most notably the WIPO - the World Intellectual Property Organization and the EUIPO - the European Union Office for Intellectual Property.