The Patent Office together with the Estonian Language Institute organized a word competition in November 2023 to find the Estonian equivalent of the word "intellectual property". Intellectual property is property arising as a result of mental work, the right to the results of a person's creative work (e.g. copyright, trademark, design solution, invention). The goal of the competition was to find a word that would sum them all up.

The word competition was successful, 273 words were proposed, some of which were repeated. In total, 196 different words were presented to the vocabulary. The employees of the Patent Office voted the word "creative property" as the winner. It was also the word that had been suggested the most in the word competition, a total of 23 times.

In our opinion, "creative property" is a very nice word as an alternative to "intellectual property". After all, all intellectual activity is related to creation. The result of creation is property that can be protected at the time of creation (copyright) or that can be protected according to legislation (invention, trademark, design).

The Estonian Language Institute chose the word "taipvara". It is also a beautiful Estonian word, but in our opinion a little misleading. "Wisdom" is mind, which is more related to knowledge and understanding. Insight has nothing to do with branding or design, which is creation. Invention is also the result of creation. In the patentability criteria of the Patent Act, there is a requirement that the invention must not be self-evident to an expert in the relevant field, due to the state of the art (§ 8 (4)), i.e. there must be something more than what can be put together with the help of common sense/knowledge. Invention, design and trademark are the result of creation, therefore creative property. Copyright is also the result of creation.

In the Dictionary of the Estonian Language Institute, the word "creative property" is already listed as a synonym next to the word "intellectual property". We wish the new word a proud flight!

Sources: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=769495421879035&set=a.289331596562089

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=770119831816594&set=a.289331596562089

https://sonaveeb.ee/search/unif/dlall/dsall/intellektualomand/1