Intellectual property, as umbrella term for copyrights and related rights and industrial property rights, represents an important and extremely dynamical area of the law, and as such is prone to numerous violations. This paper provides a complete theoretical overview of the concept of intellectual property and the protection that is provided in accordance with the legal system of Republic of Croatia in case of violations against the intellectual property rights, with emphasizes on criminal legal protection. For the better understanding of legal protection of intellectual property the paper describes the national sources of law, however, and mainly because of the international characteristics of said institute, the paper also focuses on the most relevant international and european legal documents. Furthermore, the paper talks about concepts such as: copyrights and related rights, industrial property rights, patent rights, trademark rights and geographical indications as well as violations of formerly mentioned rights in the area of criminal law. At the end of the paper the Author points out the importance that the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the European court for human rights represent to intellectual property rights as well as statistical information about violations of intellectual property rights in Republic of Croatia.