Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property (IP) is a legal concept that refers to creations of the mind for which exclusive rights are recognized under law and precedent. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets that can be described explicitly. Assets that can be considered intellectual property include, but are not limited to: musical, literary, and artistic works, discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols, and designs[1]. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights, and (in some jurisdictions) trade secrets. Although many of the legal principles governing intellectual property rights have evolved over centuries, it was not until the 19th century that the term intellectual property began to be used, and not until the late 20th century that it became commonplace in the majority of the world.
Contents
Definition
Intellectual property can be protected under the law. This means there are a number of IP rights that enable owners to limit the use or interpretations of his/her IP. These protections can come in the form of a patent, trademarks, industrial designs, geographic indications of source, and copyrights[2].
IP is becoming an increasingly important aspect of societal governance as developments and innovations become more or fully dependent on technologies. Without intellectual property rights there would be no way for a person to protect his/her IP on the internet, where creations/ideas/etc are almost never associated with a person's real life identity because of the anonymity of the internet.
Patent
A patent in the United States is defined by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) as "The grant of a property right to the inventor." A patent grant confers upon the owner "the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing the invention."[3]
Trademark
A trademark in the United States, as defined by the U.S. PTO, is "Any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others."[4]
Copyright
A copyright is a form of protection granted to the authors of "original works of authorship," both published and unpublished. A copyright protects a tangible form of expression rather than the idea or subject matter itself[5].
Intellectual Property versus Physical Property
Intellectual property differs from physical property due to the nature of how it is accessed and utilized. This has implications for defining terms under which IP can be protected[6].
Two major distinctions between IP and physical property are made by information philosopher and professor Luciano Floridi. He states two main points:
1. IP has no limitations on reproducibility. Unlike physical property where there are constraints on how many copies of a property exists, IP is virtually limitless. An example of this a song; an artist considers a new song he/she creates to be his/her IP, but any number of individuals can play this song and reproduce the same chord progressions on their own instruments.
2. IP can be used simultaneously by multiple people. The point at which it is deemed immoral and illegal to use someone else’s physical property without permission is when that property has to be physically taken away from its rightful owner, depriving the owner of using it. With IP the authorized and the unauthorized user can have access to the property at the same time (i.e. downloading software for free).
Due to this differentiation between intellectual property and physical property, an augmented legal structure for the protection of IP is necessary.
History
The concept of intellectual property dates back as far as 500 BC, "when chefs in the Greek colony of Sybaris were granted year-long monopolies for creating particular culinary delights." Two more examples of IP occurred in Roman times but were not common occurrences for this era. The English system of IP rights was instituted starting as early as 1624 with the "Statute of Monopolies." Another significant statute in English IP law is "The Statue of Anne (1710)." The American system of IP rights is based off of the English system[7].
Importance of Intellectual Property
Notable driving factors for the regulation of intellectual property rights relate back to John Locke’s original conceptualization of property in his Second Treatise. Locke explains that the value placed on an object is dependent on the existence of a society[8]. Within modern society IP is valued because of its contribution to societal progress. The importance of IP resides in incentivizing innovation so that utility is maximized and inventors are recognized for their contributions to society and rewarded for their efforts.
Protection of Intellectual Property
IP is protected under a number of regulations that need to be consistent internationally in order to be successful. Organizations such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) exist in order to create the uniformity[9].
Creative Commons is another organization that seeks to protect online IP while preserving internet users' abilities to innovate and share resources and online mediums[10]. IP protected by a Creative Commons license will have this logo on or near it: 
Ethics
Ethical Concerns About Intellectual Property
Concerns relating to ethics and intellectual property protection stem from holders of IP desire to broaden the scope of IP rights in order to capitalize to greater extents on the content of their IP products.
From the perspective of users of company owned IP (i.e. software users) there are ethical concerns regarding the payment for use of these intellectual properties due to the ease of duplication and implementation. For technological intellectual property products such as software, companies have tried to increase the scope under which their products are protected from free use. Such practices include the use of licensing softwares[11].
An example of misuse of IP protections such as patents can be seen in the practice of "patent trolling"[12]. Patent trolling is a term for the practice of "enforcing patents on one or more infringers in an aggressive manner" with opportunistic motivations and no intention of using the patented property for its allocated purpose. This is an ethical concern relating to intellectual property because there are concerns of misuse of the protections put in place to help promote innovation used solely for the financial gains of those who hold patents.
Future Implications of Intellectual Property
Intellectual property rights are increasingly a topic of discussion as it relates to information technologies. The question is whether or not IPs should be accessed freely or some type of law enforcement should exist to curb IP "theft." Basically, should there be an "Internet police" that is responsible for protecting intellectual property on the Internet from being stolen or illegally used? This is obviously a complex matter, where one solution is almost impossible as it seems like it is impossible to police the entire Internet.
See Also
References
- ↑ Definition of Intellectual Property Rights http://www.brighthub.com/office/entrepreneurs/articles/39140.aspx
- ↑ What is Intellectual Property? http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/
- ↑ United States Patent and Trademark Office Website: Patent Information http://www.uspto.gov/patents/index.jsp
- ↑ United States Patent and Trademark Office: Trademarks Information http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp
- ↑ United States Patent and Technology Office Website: Trademark, Patent, and Copyright Definitions http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/definitions.jsp
- ↑ "Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World" by GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School http://si110.cms.si.umich.edu/sites/si110.cms.si.umich.edu/files/IntellecProp/Gartner+Harvard_on_IP.pdf
- ↑ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Intellectual Property" http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intellectual-property/#HisIntPro
- ↑ John Locke's Second Treatise, Chapter 5: Of Property http://www.constitution.org/jl/2ndtr05.htm
- ↑ What is WIPO? http://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/en/
- ↑ About Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/about
- ↑ NY Times: "The Tyranny of Copyright" http://si110.cms.si.umich.edu/sites/si110.cms.si.umich.edu/files/IntellecProp/Copyright_Tyranny.pdf
- ↑ Wikipedia: Patent Troll http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll
