Intellectual Property laws Introduction “The right to own one's genius is not a new concept. However, with the arrival of the digital age, it has become much harder to remain in control of one's intellectual property. Intellectual property has grown from the need to protect one's new invention, to the need to protect a slogan or a color. In other words, intellectual property rights no longer protect solely the interest of preserving a trade secret; it is now the interest to preserve one's monetary gain” (http://classes.soe.ucsc.edu/cmpe080e/Spring05/projects/ip/). This report will look at the pros and cons of intellectual property rights and the impact it has on society. Intellectual property is a broad concept that covers various forms of knowledge that can be assigned specific rights relating to intellectual creativity or related ideas. (against ip 9)(word report 13). This allowed for laws to be formed to protect creations of the mind. It is not the idea that is being protected, but the physical form of the idea (for example, the idea of a vampire romance cannot be protected, but a specific novel such as Twilight, about a vampire romance can be protected legally). There are two main categories of intellectual property – industrial property (registered designs, patents and trademarks) and Copyright (literary works like publications, artistic works, performances, radio and television). Intellectual law generally has the following functions, even though there are differences between the various types. (pdf 3- 115) • Protecting the rights of the creators • Promoting development • Maintaining the order of business competition Registered Designs protect the design in two ways – with regard to the appearance or by the features... ... middle of paper ... ... we currently handle intellectual property (for example, not acknowledging its existence), and they would be part of a comprehensive pursuit towards a more ethical legal and/or social system. However, abolishing intellectual rights altogether is slightly worrying because there will be a lack of remuneration for creators who have put a lot of time and effort into their work, and their work can be easily copied without implications. Or is this just so worrying because it is something we are not yet used to? A world where everyone can combine ideas and share. (http://classes.soe.ucsc.edu/cmpe080e/Spring05/projects/ip/). A world where great ideas can be improved on even more without having to limit oneself due to intellectual property laws. As Jean-Nicolas Bouilly said “Whatever we possess becomes of double value when we have the oppoertunity of sharing it with others”.
Before Information Technology, tangible property such as land, buildings, goods, equipment etc. was the most valuable asset of a business. Now economic power is in the monetization of knowledge, ideas and innovation. Work or invention which results from creativity such as a new design or manuscript gives the creator the right to apply for a patent, copyright or trademark and to benefit from their authorship of scientific, literary or artistic creations.
Intellectual property is an incredibly complicated facet of the law. In the United States, we have many laws in place to control and limit profiting from others intellectual property. The issue is not only profiting from others intellectual property, but not purchasing the property from the originator as well. We will discuss why it is important to protect this property as well as why it is tremendously difficult to regulate all these safe guards. “Intellectual Property has the shelf life of a banana.” Bill Gates
When Tim Berners-Lee created the Internet as a non-proprietor, not-for-profit information conduit, he could not have predicted how controversial digitized intellectual property would become. Prior to the Internet, intellectual property was a fairly straightforward issue. It was protected with copyright, trademark, and patent legislations, which granted exclusive rights to owners. Violations were not as abundant because distribution was constrained by time and space. Moreover, violators were identifiable because anonymity was difficult to achieve. In today's "global village" however, digital information such as books, music, software and art can be instantly shared between two anonymous users, without any fee to the creator. Legislation is much more difficult to enforce.
Intellectual Property Law used to only protect art, music, and literature, but because of technological development, Intellectual Property Law now also protects a greater variety of innovations including designs, inventions, symbols, discoveries, and words. The phrase “intellectual property” was first known to be used in the late 1700’s; however, it was not widely talked about, nor was the Intellectual Property Law in actuality commonly implemented. Intellectual Property Rights slowly gained more attention by mid-1800’s after the Industrial Revolution had taken place: more companies were created, competition between corporations became fiercer, and owning unique innovations were crucial to winning the competition. However, as Intellectual Property
Intellectual property abounds in our society, it is the direct result of the expression of an idea or other intangible material (Zuber, 2014). Our laws provide rights which are specific to the owner of the intellectual property. Furthermore, intellectual property is protected by laws just like tangible property is protected (Lau & Johnson, 2014). The most widely known forms of intellectual property rights include: trade secrets for confidential information, patents for a process/invention, copyrights for creative items and trademarks for brands (Lau & Johnson, 2014). While these rights may appear very defined, there are times when questions
Intellectual property protection has become increasingly popular in the last century. Many factors have probed interest in this area of the law. A few of those factors include musicians seeking protection of their musical talents through use of copyrights, companies seek to protect inventions of advanced production capabilities, companies create trademarks that differentiate their unique goods from competitors, and companies like Coca-Cola protect their undisclosed ingredients for their products through use of trade secrets. These examples are to gain an understanding of how and why intellectual property rights help companies seek advantages in the marketplace. Furthermore, as the world shrinks because of advancements in transportation and computer technology, intellectual property rights become a large part of entrepreneurship and product development. This paper will discuss the interesting and challenging topic of intellectual property protection. The four basic types of intellectual property include copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets; we will discuss the intellectual properties in the order in which they are listed.
In week 10 of spring semester we discussed chapter 11’s Intellectual Property Law. “Property establishes a relationship of legal exclusion between an owner and other people regarding limited resources.” In this chapter, we learn that the Constitution allows Congress “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors to the exclusive Right to their respective writings and discoveries.”
...entertainment industry is saying that intellectual property is just as real as physical property. The digital age faces a true balancing act a digital dilemma if you will- the right to freedom of expression while protecting intellectual property.
Because of its intangible nature, and particularly the increase of the digital domain and the internet as a whole, computers and cyber piracy make it easier for people to steal many forms of intellectual property. Due to this major threat, intellectual property rights owners’ should take every single measure to protect their rights. Unless these rights are either sold, exchanged, transferred, or appropriately licensed for use in exchange for a monetary fee, they should be protected at all cost. In order to protect these rights, the federal and states governments have passed numerous laws and statutes to protect intellectual property from misappropriation and infringement. “The source of federal copyright and patent law originates with the Copyright and Patent ...
Pharmaceutical patents are patents for inventions within the pharmaceutical industry. Patents give exclusive rights for an invention for a product or a process of making a product [1]. There are many aspects to patents in the pharmaceutical industry that are both pros and cons; it just depends on what industry you are in. Pharmaceutical companies take out patents so they can regulate the market and restrict competition from other companies. By obtaining patents pharmaceutical companies also attract investment. In addition to this pharmaceutical companies can also regulate the price of the drug as they will be the only company selling that drug. However these aspects of patents can adversely affect the generics industry. The generics industry cannot make or sell drugs that are patented but once a patent licence expires, both the generics industry and the WHO see increased benefits as drugs become more widely available around the world (i.e. developing countries) at a lower price. Here we will discuss the pros and cons of patents from the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, generics industry and the WHO.
With the emergence and growth of the internet, intellectual property laws are much harder to enforce and many people are saying that they are outdated and obsolete. Intellectual property allows you to own your ideas, thoughts, and creativity as you would own a piece of tangible property. The human mind is a creative tool that comes up with ideas, designs, schemes, and inspirations of all kinds. Intellectual property views these ideas as being property. The ideas must also have commercial value and be a tradable commodity otherwise there would be no point to protect it. Intellectual property is basically the ownership of ideas. If one were to write a novel, for which the idea was conceived in there mind, they could copyright that novel so that no other person could steal that idea and write another novel on it. Copyright is a type of intellectual property. The main types of intellectual property are patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyrights. There are many issues arising about copyright and intellectual property due to the technological advances in the past ten years or so.
However, in recent years, it is not uncommon to see copyright in the possession of a third party other than the creator. These companies make use of copyright as an investment and financial tools to gain profit. In this case, the use of copyright loses its original purpose of protecting the creator, but used as a mean for financial gain. This could possibly hinder creativity as innovation becomes a financial tool catered to the tastes of the general public, while the less marketable new ideas goes unnoticed by the general public under the copyright laws. It is crucial to note that online platforms such as blogs, Facebook and Youtube, and people making their music/works available online for free shows the rapid surge in the number of people willing to sacrifice their copyrights to market themselves to the world. In this highly saturated market, copyright laws can become less relevant as marketing and business is placed on higher
Intellectual property is information, original ideas and expressions of the persons mind that have profitable value and are protected under copyright, patent, service mark, trademark/trade secret regulation from replication, violation, and dilution. Intellectual property includes brand items, formulas, inventions, data, designs and the work of artists. It is one of the most tradable properties in the technology market.
This case study will examine the moral issues of intellectual property rights and the effects they have on society. There are many varying stances on the subject of intellectual property, with people opposing either or both of intellectual property ownership and creative commons for various reasons. Mandatory copyrighting and patenting of inventions and published works has the potential to majorly restrict advancements in science and culture.