TWC 451: Final Project – Copyright/Intellectual Property in the Electronic Age
Instructor: Erin Frost
Neema Mahmoodi
In this new advancing age we have seen an increase in the amount of technology around us as a society. These types of advancements have brought an increased awareness in the amount of protection we have in our work. Such as, ensuring that our work is original and will not be stolen or passed around the Internet and not receive the credit we, as originators, should receive. I am the technical communicator and owner of an up and coming apparel company entitled Pharo International. We design and print our own t-shirts and sell throughout the Internet. Everyday there are new apparel companies showing up around the world and it is my job to ensure the design work of our products are protected and not stolen by other companies around the world. This is to provide protection for legal purposes and assume credit for being the original creators of the product. The context of our work is mainly design work that has been created on Photoshop or Illustrator then placed on t-shirts for selling purposes. We have to make sure that the work we are putting into our products is not unseen and stolen by someone else. This also includes the name of the company itself. We have to be sure that no one else is using the same name, which means we have to incorporate the name and register it as well for the world to know the name has been taken. Before I explain the types of intellectual property we use at Pharo International, I would first like to breakdown all of the different types of intellectual property that exists, explain their uses, how to protect it, and why this information is relevant for me as both an owner of the company and a technical communicator as well. The first intellectual property I would like to explain is patents. As stated in the book “Legal Aspects of Managing Technology”, “Patents in the United
References: Burgunder, L. (2001). Legal Aspects of Managing Technology. Cincinnati, Ohio: West Legal Studies in Business/Thomson Learning.