...Intellectual Property Stephanie Brandon MGT320 The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business Dr. Rogers November 10, 2013 Abstract This will be a short essay describing intellectual property (IP). The writer will explain the need for protection and ethical issue that may arise when IP is involved. Intellectual Property A thought or an image made into a creation others to use is a fitting description for intellectual property (IP). Just as any other property, IP needs protection from the evil of the world. Unfortunately, there is always someone waiting to profit from another person’s hard work and dedication. In order to protect IP the law provides patents, copyrights, trademarks, as well as trade secrets. Some people believe that providing protect creates a monopoly and want to shorten the term, in which a product is protective. The law benefits the creator and the consumer; it does create a monopoly but only for a short time in order for the creator to profit. Once the term of protection expires the consumer can then take the product and make improvements and even buy it cheaper. Without protection people would choose not to share their creation or invention, which would cause poor economy growth. Due to the laws of protection for IP, many lawsuits are filed each day. These types of lawsuits could last for years. A lawsuit that has lasted for a few years is Apple Inc. vs. Samsung; the lawsuit between the two electronic companies began in April 2011. Apple...
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...Intellectual Property Overview© Patents, copyrights ,and trademarks are all examples of protections of intellectual property (IP) Intellectual property has many definitions, but is usually considered to be information having commercial value and original products of the mind. Intellectual property isn’t tangible, but can be protected by the law. Intellectual property is not an item that was invented, but the thought process and plans that allowed the item to be invented and manufactured. Intellectual property is not the clothing that is sold in stores, but rather the brand name that represents the quality and style of the clothing. Patent and trademark laws have been in effect in the United States for more than 200 years. The purpose of such laws is to promote science and the arts by allowing inventors and authors/creators exclusive use of their product for a limited time. The United States Patent and Trademark office (USPTO) is a federal government agency under the Department of Commerce, which examines and issues patents and registers trademarks. Protection under intellectual property laws is a mainstay of the United States’ economy and industry, allowing products to be invented, new uses to be found for existing products, brands to built, and jobs to be created. Patent is defined as an exclusive right to the benefits of an invention or improvement granted by the U.S. Patent Office, for a specific period of time, on the basis that it is novel —not previously known or described...
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...Legal Issues of E-Business and Intellectual Property LAW/421 Intellectual property is the key factor in e-business, and without it e-business could not properly function. Intellectual property is an umbrella term that groups trade names, trademarks, domain names, patents and copyrights. Similar to traditional business, trade names and trademarks, used in the virtual world, is normally ruled by the same laws and standards. Although domain names’ function differently from trade names and trademarks, they are still subject to the same laws and guidelines as trade names and trademarks. The use of trade names, trademarks, and domain names in e-business is subject to the regulations of each country in which the e-business operates (Burke, 2002). Although e-business has the ability to offer secure purchasing transactions combined with immediate verification and confirmation of credit card transactions, there are still some risks that are involved regarding ethical and legal issues. In e-business there are many ethical and global issues relating to Information Technology. E-businesses use log files which extracts information on how visitors use a site. This process is known as web tracking. Companies use cookie analysis and tracking software to track an individual’s movement (Burke, 2002). Each tracking record is stored on the individuals PC’s hardware, and whenever the individual revisits the website, the system becomes aware of it. Many...
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...• The intellectual propriety refers to the creations of mind such as names, inventions, artworks, literary works, music compositions, and commercial designs. There are two major categories of Intellectual Propriety (IP): 1. Industrial Propriety: trademarks, inventions (patents), and designs, etc. 2. Copyrights: musical works, novels and books, photographs, movies, etc. Intellectual propriety rights (IPR) grant the holders to exercise a monopoly on the use of product/creation/idea for a limited period of time. For most of companies, IPR is the only way to protect their products and compete in the worldwide market. Same as the companies, IPR encourage inventors to develop new technologies and ideas. • IPR infringement has reached a critical level in many countries. The sectors mostly hit by this phenomenon are software houses, luxury companies, music/movie industries, and pharmaceutical products. Illegal downloading of software, music, movies, and imitations & counterfeit products became one of the biggest problems for all these sectors which lead to large loses in terms of income. • The countries most affected by IPR infringements are China, North Korea, Russia, Brazil, and India. According to the Business Software Alliance, in China, 79% of the software and 85-90% of music records have been pirated. Issues: • There are two major problems related to IPR infringements for the companies: the loss in income and the loss of reputation/image. • The piracy market...
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...Intellectual Property: Protection WC Jones CIS 324 Computer Ethics Intellectual Property: Protection The two problems that I would most likely come across in my profession would be unauthorized copying and sharing. We live in a world where it only takes time for a code, security measure, or restriction to be hacked. I have come to terms that stopping it completely is next to impossible but I could put measures in place where it would take someone a very long time to figure out how to bypass protection in hopes of deterring people not to do so. The first measure would be to have registration and activation on software. This process would have the information of the owner and the machine that is installed on. Another thing to be considered is instead of making the physical disc I would distribute for sale online where customers would have a digital locker that would only give them permissions to install the program and not be able to make a copy. If there was a need to make physical disc it would have to run on a hardware dongle. Digidesign, the makers of ProTools uses this concept and calls it iLok. (support iLok, 2012) Digidesign’s iLok houses all of the customer’s authorizations and activation keys and needs to be connected in order to use software I believe these would be the steps to take in order to limit unauthorized copies and sharing. The hardware dongle would be a big key because even if the software was copied somehow it would prove to be useless...
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...Intellectual Property What is intellectual property? What do intellectual property laws define? What are the categories of intellectual property protections? What international treaties are in place for protection of U.S. intellectual property? Intellectual property is any creation produced by a person’s mind that has some form of commercial value, such as brand names, films, literary works, and graphics. In addition, intellectual property laws define the rights of ownership to the creator of the intellectual property. For instance, organizations as well as individuals can claim ownership of creative ideas, much like physical property. However, protection varies depending upon which of the five categories the intellectual property belongs. The first category of intellectual property protection is copyrights, which provides the original author with exclusive rights to publish, produce, reproduce, and sell his or her work. The second category is patents, which prevents someone from using, selling, or producing an invention without the inventor’s explicit permission. The third category is trademarks, which identify specific goods or products and their trade origins, such as Duracell for batteries. The fourth category is service marks, which identify services. The final category of intellectual property is trade secrets, which are details that businesses keep secret to give them a competitive edge. Unfortunately, without intellectual property laws organizations and individuals...
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...products and work from mitigate the risks associated with would-be counterfeiters. The general increased levels of intellectual property problems associated with modern day theft, manufacturers must assess their counterfeiting and intellectual property intellectual property strategy and adopt piracy have long been recognized, yet more sophisticated methods of today’s high-tech economy has protection to keep pace with today’s magnified the problem of intellectual more refined counterfeiting operations. property theft, allowing counterfeiting Scope of Intellectual Property Theft T he illicit business of copying other’s products and designs and selling them as cheaper, usually substandard dollars from the global economy. In 1996, this figure jumped to as much as an estimated $200 billion. The look-a-likes is an underground industry economic value of global counterfeiting worth billions. In a written statement in 2003 is estimated at $500 billion. before the Senate Committee on the Various organizations, including Judiciary, Thomas J. Donohue, President Interpol, estimate that the trade in and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of counterfeit goods ranges between 6-9% Commerce stated, “Growth in the trade of all current world trade with volume of illegitimate goods over the past 20 sharply rising.2 The Federal Bureau of years is astounding, intellectual property Investigation has called counterfeiting crime is one of the fastest growing “the crime of the 21st century” as the ...
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...Intellectual Property: A Fight for Ideas Park University Intellectual property as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy “is generally characterized as non-physical property that is the product of original thought” (Moore). According to the World Intellectual Property Organization “the rights in relation to: literary, artistic and scientific works; the performance of performing artist, phonograms and broadcasts; inventions in all fields of human endeavor; scientific discoveries; industrial designs; trademarks; service marks and commercial names and designations; and all other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields” ("Intellectual Property and Legal Services"). There is a distinct difference between traditional property laws and intellectual property laws. Property laws would give rights to the sole owner of an object such as a car. When the owner is driving the car no one else can drive the car. In regards to intellectual property the law allows other individuals to make use of the idea or invention as long as they have met the requirements, usually in the form of payment for the right. The idea of protecting one’s ideas has deep reaching roots that stretch back to the 17th century. Philosopher John Locke promoted intellectual property law with his idea “that a person should enjoy the fruits of his labor” ("Intellectual Property and Legal Services"). Protection for ideas were spread throughout Europe...
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...Intellectual property is consist of your ideas, inventions, and creations in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. It can also consist of the symbols, names, designs and models used by your business. Having a dispute resolution clause can happen at any time and in any situation. Having a dispute resolution clause helps saving time, money and painful litigations. It also helps preserve the relationship between the parties involved. To solve these issues, a dispute resolution clause is important including a litigation regarding Intellectual Property. These clauses help you protect your intellectual property, it protects the company and the employees, and protect the company against any legal litigation regarding the intellectual property rights. In order for the company to have a better idea of the intellectual assets it owns, it is recommended that an intellectual property audit is done. This will help identify the kind of assets that are important for the business and that you need to protect. Things to consider when inventorying intellectual property in your workplace are the types of IP: * Patents Protect inventive, functional and design ideas. * Copyright protects original works of expression, although not the underlying ideas. * Trade secrets- any form of valuable information or technology and that it has economic value. * Trademarks Marks and symbols to distinguish origin of the goods and services of a provider from those of ...
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...Intellectual property rights provide the foundation for building and extending markets for new technology. Economists and policymakers are progressively realizing that to manage and encourage technological progress, there is a need of a framework of legal institutions that promotes its benefits but also limits its excess. The paramount difficulty of companies and individuals engaging in development of new technology of any kind is appropriating the fruits of their labor. In developed market economies, in spite of the presence of substantial intellectual property rights, the widespread imitation of intellectual property deems them imperfect and inadequate. Lax enforcement of domestic laws and regulations, and the absence of international treaties concerning the protection of international property rights further aggravate the problem. The framework and implementation of intellectual property rights shapes the success of major industries ranging from computer software, biotechnology to entertainment as it determines how they can market their products. Intellectual property is expensive to create but easy to reproduce. The fixed cost of producing intellectual property is high, but its marginal cost is low. For example, the research and development of a drug can cost billions of dollars, but its reproduction can easily be done at low costs. Lack of protection gives rise to free riding on the innovator’s production and kills the innovator’s incentive to produce more. Registering...
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...1 Definition of intellectual property and the cyber space Questions to be answered by the research Research methods used The research Hypothesis Experiment Results Conclusion Recommendation References 2 What is intellectual property? In general, it is the intangible property that is the result of creativity e.g. patents or copyrights In relation to the cyberspace, it refers to the knowledge possessed in the notional environment in which communication over computer networks occurs. 3 Accessing the internet from search engines e.g. Google, ASK, et.c Copying and pasting contents into other programs and sites. Publishing the information for the public to access through other web sites. Posting media from hardcopies into a website. Research on the level of intellectual property protection from theft. Intellectual property: There is a great deal of debate these days on who owns the web ideas. This is a complex issue that is emerging and which require immediate action either by an international body by individual scientists. Many people publish their intellect property online hoping to get a great pitch from it, only knowing that it is at times monkey business due to plagiarism all over the world. Even though this happens, we still find it necessary to post our ideas online since it is a convenient way of e-commercing and dispersing any other information. What really happens when we say someone has stolen from a web site? The thing is that...
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...Intellectual Property Protection Christian Kamey BUS/401 - Business Law for Entrepreneurs May 15, 2012 Denise Brown Intellectual Property Protection An artist’s creativity is what sets them apart from everybody else. It is the determining factor in them becoming famous. An artist looks for the help of music labels and music studios to convey their messages and uniqueness into a format that can entertain masses of people. The important thing an artist has to offer is their intellectual property. So a music studios major function is to protect it as much as possible. An artist is purchasing a service that is going to help promote their image. A studio is making a final product for them to show the world. In reality a music studio is in the business to protect the intellectual property of these individuals. This paper will discuss a business opportunity and its obligations to protect itself as well as the people who purchase services from the business. Secondly, discuss the legal procedures to protect the business. Thirdly, depict some examples as to how those measures may not be sufficient enough to protect the intellectual property of individuals. A group of investors is interested in starting a music recording studio. This particular business will specialize in helping artists who struggle with getting their music recorded. The intellectual property associated with this start up is the works recorded within the studio walls. Every song has three copyrights that protect...
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...Free Software Issues Questions: Discussion Thread: "Free Software" Consider the "Free Software" approach advocated by Richard Stallman and others (see Section 4.6 of Gift of Fire). Do you think this approach should be adopted? Why or why not? How do you think the Free Software approach would affect the quantity and quality of software that would be produced? Would the current funding methods for free software is sufficient? Why or why not? Are there other modifications of the current system of software licensing that should be considered? What are some of the arguments people give to justify copying software? Do you agree or disagree with each of these arguments? Why or why not? Question 1 They should not adopt the approach since no company can invest in software that they cannot use for profitability purposes. For people, it would be good but the companies would constantly be losing capital. The only possible way is to put advertising on software that makes a small amount of income for the company but benefit for consumers (Stallman, 2002). Question 2 There are many ways it could go in this question. The quality of the software could be awful since they supply it for free. With so many consumers using the software, the number of users and their opinions on how it should run efficiently could greatly improve it. Running a prototype is the only way to know how it would perform. If everyone can easily access the software, then it’s possible...
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...Intellectual Property Intangible rights protecting the products of human intelligence and creation, such as copyrightable works, patented inventions, Trademarks, and trade secrets. Although largely governed by federal law, state law also governs some aspects of intellectual property. 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, Patents, and trademark law. It is intended largely to encourage the development of art, science, and information by granting certain property rights to all artists, which include inventors in the arts and the sciences. These rights allow artists to protect themselves from infringement, or the unauthorized use and misuse of their creations. Trademarks and service marks protect distinguishing features (such as names or package designs) that are associated with particular products or services and that indicate commercial source. Patent A patent secures a sole right for a limited period of time to prevent others from using the invention commercially. This sole right represents a key competitive advantage and serves to protect the assets produced by corporate research and development. The actual drafting of a patent application is decisive for the extent of the protection obtained. We possess expertise in all fields of technology. Trademark A trademark often represents a substantial asset and is...
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...To begin, “Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions; literary and artistic works; and symbols, names and images used in commerce” intellectual property is protected by the law, in form of patents, trademarks and copyright. Intellectual property is split into two categories; copyright and industrial property. Copyright covers films, music, art and literary works; copyright ensures that the patent holder is the primary benefactor of their creation. Industrial property covers patents for inventions, trademarks and industrial designs. Patents provide protection of ownership for inventors of products, which provide incentive for everyone to try and create products that are better and more efficient than their predecessors as they know that they can safely reap the rewards of their own success for themselves. Without this people would be much less encouraged to invent new products for the market as no one would be able to be the sole benefactor of their own works as once created anyone could claim that they are the owners. Therefore it can be argued that without IP rights the world could be much less developed with much less advanced technologies due to lack of incentive for inventors, researchers and artists. Innovation blooms when artists and inventors are promised reward for the success of their products, for example people who upload their songs to ITunes are rewarded with the credit for their music and sometimes money if consumers are made to pay for their...
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