Why Protecting Intellectual Property Rights Are Important
Why Protecting Intellectual Property Rights are Important for Creating Wealth
Prepared By: Tony Lyall
Why Protecting Intellectual Property Rights are Important for Creating Wealth
What is intellectual property? The World Intellectual Property Organization defines intellectual property as the “creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce” (WIPO). If a country wants to create wealth it must provide opportunities for its citizens to protect their intellectual creations from thief, otherwise there is no incentive for people to be inventive, creative or to produce new ideas, products or services and bring them to market. Without newly created goods and services the market for exchange would soon dry up and the opportunities for creating new wealth would as well. It is important to the creator of intellectual property that he be allowed the opportunity to profit from his work. Commonly intellectual property is protected by the use of copyrights, trademarks, servicemarks, patents, industrial designs and trade secrets. A “copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of “original works or authorship” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works both published and unpublished”. A “trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others”. A “servicemark is the same as a trademark except it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product.” A “patent for an inventor is the grant of a property right to the inventor” (USPTO). Trade secrets are formulas, processes, services or similar things that give companies a competitive advantage over their competition, for example the formula for Coca-Cola or Kentucky Fried Chicken’s eleven herbs and spices recipe. Industrial designs are the designs for
Prepared By: Tony Lyall
Why Protecting Intellectual Property Rights are Important for Creating Wealth
What is intellectual property? The World Intellectual Property Organization defines intellectual property as the “creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce” (WIPO). If a country wants to create wealth it must provide opportunities for its citizens to protect their intellectual creations from thief, otherwise there is no incentive for people to be inventive, creative or to produce new ideas, products or services and bring them to market. Without newly created goods and services the market for exchange would soon dry up and the opportunities for creating new wealth would as well. It is important to the creator of intellectual property that he be allowed the opportunity to profit from his work. Commonly intellectual property is protected by the use of copyrights, trademarks, servicemarks, patents, industrial designs and trade secrets. A “copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of “original works or authorship” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works both published and unpublished”. A “trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others”. A “servicemark is the same as a trademark except it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product.” A “patent for an inventor is the grant of a property right to the inventor” (USPTO). Trade secrets are formulas, processes, services or similar things that give companies a competitive advantage over their competition, for example the formula for Coca-Cola or Kentucky Fried Chicken’s eleven herbs and spices recipe. Industrial designs are the designs for
References: World Intellectual Property Organization. What is Intellectual Property? Retrieved from: http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/index.html. United States Patent and Trademark Office. What are Patents, Trademarks, Servicemarks and Copyrights? Retrieved from: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/ whatis.htm Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. (n.d.) Retrieved June 11, 2010. from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for-the- Protection_of-Literary_and-Artistic_Works Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. (2007) The Economic Impact of Counterfeiting and Piracy: Executive Summary. Retrieved May 26, 2010 from http://www.org/dataoecd/13/12/38707619.pdf. Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy. What is BASCAP? Retrieved May 30, 2010 from http://www.iccwbo.org/bascap/id883/index.html. Piracy (1979). Black’s Law Dictionary with Pronunciations 5th Edition. By Henry Campbell Black, M.A. CyberCollege InternetCollege. (n.d.) Puritans to Pirating. Retrieved June 11, 2010 from http://www.cybercollege.com/frtv/book2.htm World Trade Organization. Intellectual property: protection and enforcement. Retrieved May 30, 2010 from http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/ehatis_c/tif_e/agrm7_e.htm. Krummenacker, M (1995). Are “ IntellectualProperty Rights” Justified? Retrieved from http://www.n-a-n-o.com/ipr/ectro2/extro2mk.html/