Intellectual property rights are the rights granted to people over the creation of their mind. They usually give the author an exclusive right to use his creation for a certain period of time. Intellectual property law can be considered analogous to tangible property law, since both consist of a set of rights transferred to the owner. However, intellectual property law is distinct from substantive property law. While the right of exclusive possession is at the heart of all rights that protect tangible and personal property, land and movable property, the same is not true of intellectual property. Intellectual property law is generally understood as incentivizing authors and inventors to produce works in the public interest by regulating the use of those works by the public to ensure that authors and inventors are compensated for their efforts. The misappropriation of trade secrets is different from violations of other intellectual property laws because trade secrets are by definition secret, while patents and registered copyrights and trademarks are publicly available. In the United States, trade secrets are protected by state law, and states have passed the Uniform Trade Secrets Act almost everywhere. The United States has also signed a federal law in the form of the Industrial Espionage Act of 1996 (18 U.S.C§ §§ 1831-1839), which makes the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime. This law contains two provisions that criminalize two types of activities. The first, 18 U.S.C§ 1831(a), criminalizes the theft of trade secrets from foreign powers. The second, 18 U.S.C§ 1832, criminalizes their theft for commercial or economic purposes.
(The legal penalties are different for the two offenses.) In Commonwealth common law jurisdictions, confidentiality and trade secrets are considered a just right rather than a property right, but the penalties for theft are about the same as in the United States. [Citation needed] « Literary property » was the term used primarily in British legal debates of the 1760s and 1770s about the extent to which authors and publishers of works also had rights under the Common Law of Property (Millar v Taylor (1769), Hinton v Donaldson (1773), Donaldson v Becket (1774). The first known use of the term intellectual property dates back to this period, when an article published in the Monthly Review in 1769 used the term. [13] The first clear example of modern use dates back to 1808, when it was used as a title in a collection of essays. [14] A copyright gives the author of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Copyright can apply to a wide range of creative, intellectual or artistic forms or « works ». [33] [34] Copyright does not extend to ideas and information themselves, but only to the form or manner in which they are expressed. [35] Assuming that intellectual property rights are real rights, Stallman says that this claim does not correspond to the historical intentions behind these laws, which in the case of copyright served as a censorship system and later as a regulatory model for printing, which may have benefited authors by chance, but never interfered with the freedom of the average reader. [74] He still refers to copyright and cites legal literature such as the U.S. Constitution and jurisprudence to show that the law is intended to be an optional and experimental trade aimed at temporarily exchanging property rights and freedom of expression for public, not private, benefits in the form of increased artistic production and knowledge.
It states that « if copyright were a natural right, there could be no justification for terminating that right after a certain period of time ». [75] Intellectual property law deals with laws to protect and enforce the rights of authors and owners of inventions, writings, music, designs and other works called « intellectual property. » There are several areas of intellectual property, including copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. By exchanging limited exclusive rights for the disclosure of inventions and creative works, the company and the patent owner/copyright owner benefit from each other, and an incentive is created for inventors and authors to create and disclose their work. Some commentators have noted that the goal of intellectual property legislators and those who support its implementation appears to be « absolute protection. » « If some intellectual property is desirable because it encourages innovation, they argue that more is better. The idea is that creators will not have enough incentive to invent themselves unless they are legally allowed to grasp the full social value of their inventions. [20] This absolute view of protection or full value treats intellectual property as another type of « real estate » that usually adopts its law and rhetoric. Other recent developments in the field of intellectual property law, such as the America Invents Act, emphasize international harmonization. Recently, there has also been much discussion about the advisability of using intellectual property rights to protect cultural heritage, including intangible inheritance rights, as well as the risks of commodification arising from this possibility. [40] The question remains open in the case law. In general, intellectual property is any product of the human intellect that the law protects from unauthorized use by others. Intellectual property inherently creates a limited monopoly on protected property.
Intellectual property traditionally consists of four categories: patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets. The rights of authors of literary and artistic works (such as books and other writings, musical compositions, paintings, sculptures, computer programs and films) are protected by copyright for a period of at least 50 years after the death of the author. Infringement of intellectual property rights, called « infringement » with respect to patents, copyrights and trademarks and « misappropriation » in relation to trade secrets, may constitute a violation of civil or criminal law, depending on the nature of the intellectual property concerned, the jurisdiction and the nature of the action. Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes the immaterial creations of the human intellect. [1] [2] There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] The most well-known types are copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets. The modern concept of intellectual property developed in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. The term « intellectual property » was used in the 19th century, although intellectual property did not become commonplace in most global legal systems until the end of the 20th century. [8] According to Jean-Frédéric Morin, « the global intellectual property regime is currently undergoing a paradigm shift. » [24] Until the early 2000s, the global IP regime was dominated by high standards of protection characteristic of IP laws from Europe or the United States, with the vision that the uniform application of these standards would take place in each country and in various fields without taking into account social values, cultural or environmental or national level of economic development.
Its special character is also that no one possesses the least, because everyone possesses the whole. He who receives an idea from me receives instruction himself without diminishing mine; how he who lights his rejuvenation on mine receives the light without darkening me. [102] The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) states that « effective enforcement of intellectual property rights is essential to maintaining economic growth in all sectors and globally. » [47] The Statute of Monopolies (1624) and the British Statute of Anne (1710) are considered to be the origins of patent law and copyright respectively[12] and enshrine the concept of intellectual property […].
