What is Intellectual Property?
What is intellectual property?
According to dictonary on answers.com: intellectual property is a product of the intellect that has commercial value, including copyrighted property such as literary or artistic works, and ideational property, such as patents, appellations of origin, business methods, and industrial processes.
From "Legal encyclopedia" by Thomas Gale: Intellectual property describes a wide variety of property created by musicians, authors, artists, and inventors. The law of intellectual property typically encompasses the areas of copyright, patent, and trademark law. It is designed to encourage the development of art, science, and information by granting certainproperty rights to all artists, which include inventors in both the arts and the sciences. These rights allow artists to protect themselves frominfringement, or the unauthorized use and misuse of their creations.
Copyright laws have roots in eighteenth-century English law. Comprehensive patent laws can be traced to seventeenth-century England, and they have been a part of U.S. law since the colonial period. The copyright and patent concepts were both included in the U.S. Constitution. Under Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, of the Constitution, "The Congress shall have Power … To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." The first trademark laws were passed by Congress in the late nineteenth century.
The bulk of intellectual property law is contained in federal statutes. Copyrights are protected by the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C.A. § 101 et seq. [1994]), patents are covered in the Patent Act (35 U.S.C.A. § 101 et seq. [1994]), and trademark protection is provided by the Lanham Act (also known as the Trademark Act) (15 U.S.C.A. § 1501 et seq. [1994]).
Intellectual property laws give artists the exclusive right to profit from their work for a particular limited period. For copyrighted material, the exclusive right lasts for fifty years beyond the death of the author. The length of the right can vary forpatents, but in most cases it lasts for twenty years. Trademark rights are exclusive for ten years, and can be continually renewed for subsequent ten-year periods.
Intellectual property laws do not fall in the category of criminal law. Some copyright laws authorize criminal penalties, but by and large, the body of intellectual property law is concerned with prevention and compensation, both of which are civil matters. This means that the artist, not the government, is responsible for enforcement.
Intellectual property laws provide artists with the power to enforce their property rights in civil court. They provide for damages when unauthorized use or misuse has occurred. They also provide forinjunctions, or court orders, to prevent unauthorized use or misuse.
The property protected by intellectual property laws must be in atangible form. For example, a musician cannot claim copyright protection for a melody unless it has been written down or somehow actualized and affixed with a recognizable abbreviation. A formula or device cannot receive patent protection unless it has been presented in whole to the Patent and Trademark Office. A symbol cannot receive trademark protection unless it has been placed on goods or used in connection with services.
Copyright
Copyright laws grant to authors, artists, composers, and publishers the exclusive right to produce and distribute expressive and original work. Only expressive pieces, or writings, may receive copyright protection. A writing need not be words on paper: in copyright law, it can be a painting, sculpture, or other work of art. The writing element merely requires that a work of art, before receiving copyright protection, must be reduced to some tangible form. This may be on paper, on film, on audiotape, or on any other tangible instrument that can be reproduced.
The writing requirement ensures that copyrighted material is capable of being reproduced. Without this requirement artists could not be expected to know whether they were infringing on the original work of another person. The writing requirement also enforces the copyright rule that ideas cannot be copyrighted: only the expression of ideas can be protected.
Copyrighted material also must be original. This means that there must be something new about the work that sets it apart from previous similar works. If the variation is more than trivial, the work will receive copyright protection.
Functionality can be a factor in copyright law. The copyrights to architectural design, for example, are generally reserved for architectural works that are not functional. If the only purpose or function of a particular design is utilitarian, the work cannot be copyrighted. For instance, a person may not copyright a simple design for a water spigot. If, however, a person creates a fancy water spigot, the design is copyrightable.
Copyrighted material can receive varying degrees of protection. The scope of protection is generally limited to the original work that is in the writing. For example, assume that an artist has created a sculpture of the moon. The sculptor may not prevent others from making sculptures of the moon. However, the sculptor may prevent others from making sculptures of the moon that are exact replicas of his own sculpture.
Copyright protection gives the copyright holder the exclusive right to (1) reproduce the copyrighted work, (2) create derivative works from the work, (3) distribute the work, (4) perform the work, and (5) display the work. The first two rights are infringed whether they are violated in public or in private. The last three rights may be infringed only if they are violated in public. Public is defined under the Copyright Act as a performance or display to a "substantial number of persons" outside of friends and family (17 U.S.C.A. § 101).
Infringement of copyright occurs whenever someone exercises the exclusive rights of the copyright owner without the owner's permission. The infringement need not be intentional. Copyright owners usually prove infringement in court by showing that copying occurred, and that the copying amounted to impermissible appropriation. These showings require an analysis and comparison of the copyrighted work and the disputed work. Many general rules also relate to infringement of certain works. For example, a character created in a copyrighted work may not receive copyright protection unless the character is developed in great detail and a character in the disputed work closely resembles that character.
The most important exception to the exclusive rights of the copyright holder is the "fair use" doctrine. This doctrine allows the general public to use copyrighted material without permission in certain situations. These situations include educational activities, literary and social criticism, parody, and news reporting. Whether a particular use is fair depends on a number of factors, including whether the use is for profit, what proportion of the copyrighted material is used, and what economic effect the use has on the copyright owner.
Patent
Patent laws encourage private investment in new technologies by granting to artists the right to forbid all others to produce and distribute technological information that is new, useful, and nonobvious. The statutory requirements for patent protection are more stringent than those for copyright protection. Furthermore, because patent protection for commercial products or processes can give a tremendous market advantage to businesses, those seeking patents often find opposition to their applications. Patent protection can be obtained only through the U.S. Patent Office. Generally, only new, useful, and nonobvious processes or products will be approved for patent protection.
The novelty requirement focuses on events that occur prior to the invention. Under section 102 of the Patent Act, an invention is not novel if it is publicly used, sold, or patented by another inventor within twelve months of the patent application. This definition implements the public policy that favors quick disclosure of technological progress.
Often, two inventors apply for a patent for the same product or process within the same twelve-month period. Three factors determine who wins the patent: the date and time that the product or process was conceived, the date and time that the product or process was reduced to practice, and the diligence used to pursue patent protection and perfect the discovery. Generally, the first inventor to conceive the product or process has priority in the application process. However, if the second inventor is the first to reduce the product or process to practice, and the first inventor does not use diligence to obtain patent protection, the second inventor is given priority in the application process.
The utility requirement ensures that the product or process receiving patent protection will have some beneficial use. The inventor must specify in the application a specific utility for the invention. If the application is for a process, the process must be useful with respect to a product. A process that is new and nonobvious but useless does not increase knowledge or confer any benefit on society.
Nonobviousness is not the same as novelty. Not everything novel is nonobvious. However, anything that is nonobvious is novel, unless it has already been patented. The nonobvious requirement focuses on existing technology, or prior art. In determining whether an invention is nonobvious, the Patent Office analyzes the prior art, examines the differences between the invention and the prior art, and determines the level of ordinary skill in the art. Generally, if an invention is obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the relevant art, it is not patentable.
When an inventor claims that his or her patent has been infringed, the court generally engages in a two-step process. First, the court analyzes all the relevant patent documents. Then, the court reads the patent documents and compares them with the device or process that is accused of infringement. If each element of the accused device or process substantially duplicates an element in the patented device or process, the court may declare that the patent has been infringed. Infringement can occur only if another person uses, makes, or sells the patented device or process without the permission of the person who has received the patent, or the patentee.
When a patented device or process is infringed, the patent holder may recover in damages an amount equal to a reasonable royalty. If the infringement was willful, the infringing party may be forced to pay three times the reasonable royalty. If successful in court, the patent holder may also recover court costs and attorneys' fees. If the patent holder anticipates infringement, she or he may apply for an injunction, or court order. An injunction in such a case would prohibit a certain party from infringing the patent. An injunction may also issue after a finding of infringement, to prevent repeat infringement.
Trademark
Trademark laws allow businesses to protect the symbolic information that relates to their goods and services, by preventing the use of such information by competitors. To receive trademark protection, a mark must be distinctive. Distinctive generally applies to any coined or fanciful word or term that does not closely resemble an existing mark. No mark will receive trademark protection if it is a common or descriptive term used in the marketplace.
To receive trademark protection, a mark must be used in the marketplace. If two or more marketers claim ownership of a certain mark, the first user of the mark will usually receive the protection. However, if the mark is known only in a limited geographic area, it may not receive protection in areas where it is unknown to consumers.
Infringement occurs if a mark is likely to cause confusion among consumers. In determining whether confusion is likely, the court examines a number of factors, including the similarity between the two marks in appearance, sound, connotation, and impression; the similarity of the goods or services that the respective marks represent; the similarity of the markets; whether the sale of the goods or services is inspired by impulse or only after careful consideration by the buyer; the level of public awareness of the mark; whether shoppers are actually confused; the number and nature of similar marks on similar goods or services; the length of time of concurrent use without actual confusion on the part of shoppers; and the variety of goods or services that the mark represents (In re E. I. duPont de Nemours & Co., 476 F.2d 1357, 177 U.S.P.Q. 563 [1973]).
Defenses to infringement include fair use and collateral use. Fair use occurs when the second user, or repossessor, uses a protected mark in a nonconspicuous way to identify a component of a good or service. For example, a restaurant can use a protected mark to advertise that it serves a particular brand of soft drink without infringing the mark. The restaurant cannot, however, identify itself by the mark without infringing the mark.
Collateral use is use of the same mark in a different market. For example, assume that a tree surgeon has received trademark protection for the mark Tree Huggers. This protection may not prevent a business that sells logging boots from obtaining the same mark. However, if the mark for the boots is written or otherwise appears with the same defining characteristics as the mark for the tree surgeon, it risks being denied trademark protection, depending on whether it can be confused by consumers.
Remedies for infringement of a protected trademark consist of damages for the profits lost owing to the infringement, recovery of the profits realized by the infringer owing to the infringement, and attorneys' fees. A trademark holder may also obtain injunctive relief to prevent infringement.
Other Forms of Intellectual Property The body of intellectual property law also includes laws relating totrade secrets, unfair competition, and the right of publicity. Trade secret laws protect any formula, pattern, device, or compilation of information that provides a business advantage over competitors who do not use or know of the formula, pattern, device, or compilation of information. A strategy to increase worker productivity, for example, is a trade secret. Trade secrets do not receive patent protection because they are not inventive. Trade secret laws are included in intellectual property laws because, like other intellectual property laws, they prevent the unauthorized use of certain information.
Unfair competition laws cover the misuse and misappropriation of a product for financial gain, by protecting valuable information of a business that does not qualify for copyright or trademark protection. For example, assume that a business has developed a popular cologne with distinctive packaging. Now assume that another business has begun to manufacture the same product with virtually identical packaging in an attempt to capitalize on the success of the original cologne. Even though the knockoff is not an exact copy of the original and does not infringe trademark protection, the first business may protect itself through unfair competition laws. The test to determine whether a business is liable for unfair competition is whether the two products could be confused by a reasonable shopper.
The right of publicity is the right of a person to control the commercial value and exploitation of his or her name and likeness. Because right-of-publicity laws promote artistic pursuits, they are included in intellectual property law. These laws are usually reserved for celebrities and other public figures whose name and image are important to their career. By allowing celebrities the right to control the commercial use of their name and image, right-of-publicity laws protect the commercial potential of entertainers.
Recent Developments
One big problem that artists face is protecting their property in other countries. Not all countries subscribe to international agreements regarding intellectual property, and this has led to widespread unauthorized copying. In the 1990s China and Mexico were identified as serious offenders. In both countries music and films were copied and sold openly without compensation to the creators. The United States threatened to impose trade sanctions against China if it did not observe international copyright treaties. Such threats illustrate that the United States places a high priority on protecting the right of artists to profit from their work.
According to Wikipedia:
Intellectual property (IP) refers to a legal entitlement which sometimes attaches to the expressed form of an idea, or to some other intangible subject matter. This legal entitlement generally enables its holder to exercise exclusive rights of use in relation to the subject matter of the IP. The term intellectual property reflects the idea that this subject matter is the product of the mind or the intellect, and that IP rights may be protected at law in the same way as any other form of property.
Intellectual property laws are territorial such that the registration or enforcement of IP rights must be pursued separately in each jurisdiction of interest. However, these laws are becoming increasingly harmonised through the effects of international treaties such as the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, while other treaties may facilitate registration in more than one jurisdiction at a time.
Overview Intellectual property laws confer a bundle of exclusive rights in relation to the particular form or manner in which ideas or information are expressed or manifested, and not in relation to the ideas or concepts themselves (see idea-expression divide). It is therefore important to note that the term "intellectual property" denotes the specific legal rights which authors, inventors and other IP holders may hold and exercise, and not the intellectual work itself.
Intellectual property laws are designed to protect different forms of intangible subject matter, although in some cases there is a degree of overlap.
copyright may subsist in creative and artistic works (eg. books, movies, music, paintings, photographs and software), giving a copyright holder the exclusive right to control reproduction or adaptation of such works for a certain period of time. A patent may be granted in relation to an invention that is new, useful and not simply an obvious advancement over what exisited when the application was filed. A patent gives the holder an exclusive right to commercially exploit the invention for a certain period of time (typically 20 years from the filing date of a patent application). A trademark is a distinctive sign which is used to distinguish the products or services of one business from those of another business. An industrial design right protects the form of appearance, style or design of an industrial object (eg. spare parts, furniture or textiles). A trade secret (also known as "confidential information") is an item of confidential information concerning the commercial practices or proprietary knowledge of a business. Patents, trademarks and designs fall into a particular subset of intellectual property known as industrial property.