A Brief History of the Development of Intellectual Property Law in the United States

The development of intellectual property law in the United States has followed the development of society within the United States from a primarily agricultural society during the 1700’s to today’s technological society. The development of intellectual property law in the United States has also followed the development of American law in general. As America moved into and through the Industrial Revolution of the 1800’s, intellectual property laws became more and more numerous and stringent as people and industry worked to safe guard their money making ideas and products. The explosive use of the internet in today’s society has added an entirely new wrinkle to protection of concepts and ideas and products in the market place. Black’s Law Dictionary defines intellectual property as “a category of intangible rights protecting commercially valuable products of the human intellect.” (Black's Law Dictionary 1999, 813) Many times these can apply to intangible items like ideas but can also include tangible items like the Model T Ford of Henry Ford. The term intellectual property is a relatively new term but the concept of what intellectual property is has been around for many years. The term intellectual property encompasses copyrights, patents, and trademarks. Copyright laws “protect ‘original forms of expression’ – Magic Mountain, ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Fiddler on the Roof’.” (William W. Fisher 1999, 1) Trademarks apply to protection of a word or phrase or symbol used to guarantee a product’s genuineness. (Black's Law Dictionary 1999, 1500) The Nike “swoosh” and the “three stripes” of adidas are examples of trademarks. Patent is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as “[t]he exclusive right to make, use or sell an invention for a specified period of time granted by the federal governmental to the inventor if the device or process is novel, useful and nonobvious.” (Black's Law Dictionary 1999, 1147) An example of a patent would be Thomas Edison’s light bulb patent