Intellectual Property, Copyright, And Patents

An Introduction to the Law and Economics of Intellectual Property Author(s): Stanley M. Besen and Leo J. Raskind Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Winter, 1991), pp. 3-27 Published by: American Economic Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1942699 . Accessed: 24/11/2011 08:39

Copyright is the legal right, to an inventor to perform, print, publish, film, or record artistic, literary, or musical material, and to allow others to do the same. Copyright law was developed to provide the creators and inventors of any works with powerful and effective rights of exclusivity over their creations (Patterson & Lindberg, 1991). Over the past, these rights were almost unlimited. People would use existing developments as if they were their own without any regard of the creator’s exclusive rights. The need to balance and limit such rights arose, and governments established these limits for the general good of the public.

Lionel Bentley and Brad Sherman have, in their book; "Intellectual Property Law” acknowledged that indeed there is tension between competition law and intellectual property law. While discussing the effect of competition law on the exploitation of copyright , they state that a copyright entitles an owner to use the property in a manner which he or she so wishes and that the copyright owner cannot be compelled to apply their rights in a particular manner. This is the exclusivity of a right. They, however, acknowledge that there are circumstances in which competition law may require a property owner to make available the right for use by the public. They state that operators in dominant positions have a special responsibility not to allow their conduct to impair

There are claims made suggesting that copyright is a direct violation of our freedom of speech. Within the general foundation of protection and enjoyment of those protections, rest limitations, because of the real connection between authorization and copyright law. The goal of research is to investigate and unearth specific facts about the history of intellectual property in relation to old and contemporary court cases. The M. Whitmark & Sons v. Pastime Amusement Decree states that copyright is an indivisible and cannot be split up and partially assigned, as to time, place, rights and privileges (298 F. 470, 1924). Does this case contradict the Digital Millennium Act? Are the copyright rules in violation of any rights concerning our right to free speech? If so, how are those rights violated? The Statute of Anne in eighteenth century Europe, was set up to prevent the unauthorized composition of works that had

One of the most common, yet controversial, issues of First Amendment law is the subject of copyright and infringement. Although the subject may not seem major at first, many different issues and controversies have risen and become more common than ever over the years. The issues that have become pertinent to this subject are endless, including trademark infringement, piracy, theft, fraud, plagiarism, and many more. With the coming of age and advancement of technology, these cases have become more common and appear more often than ever before. Government officials have always been strict about copyright rulings, and have tried to deliver fair and just rulings for both parties involved under First Amendment rules. Because the owner’s work and material is protected under the First Amendment, it gets tricky when involving another party that can claim the same work of art. In short, the definition of copyright has always been cut and dry: allowing owners of creative works the right to control and profit from their creations. It is basically recognized as a form of property ownership.

Copyright laws in the United States are very important because it protects your work from someone claiming that it’s theirs. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), The main reason why intellectual property laws exist is because it protects the progress and well-being of humanity by creating and inventing new works in the areas of technology and culture. Second, the legal protection promotes innovation. Lastly, the promotion increases jobs, increases technological advancements, and spurs inventions. So this means that if you worked tirelessly to complete a research paper on a doctoral thesis for a method to reduce the risk of cancer in humans, you should be credited for that work. A random person cannot go and copy your work and claim it as their own. At the same time, if a photographer spent months traveling around the world taking pictures of beautiful places, things, people, etc. the photographer is protected from someone taking their photographs and using it for themselves, without giving the photographer credit. Unfortunately, people go even further with copyright in the photographer’s example, by taking the photographers pictures and putting it on a canvas or enlarging it, and sell it to people to make money, which is traditionally called piracy. Copyright covers both using someone’s work for an assignment and someone stealing your photographs and using it for themselves to make a profit, but I believe that piracy is greater of the two evils.

When the United States was established, the first amendment guaranteed the rights to free speech and free press. However, “it has never been interpreted to mean that all forms of expression are legal” (Zorea). The common misconception is that people believe that all forms of expression are legal, but that has never been the case, and probably never will be. Intellectual freedom is important because it allows people to express their ideas or beliefs however they feel is appropriate (Intellectual Freedom Manual). With censorship, that freedom is stifled and breaches the right everyone has for that intellectual freedom. Also affecting that freedom is the influence that outside sources can have on your own thoughts and actions. People tend to rely more on television and other electronic media to give them false ideas or impressions.

Copyright infringement for me, because I have some patents, is like somebody using my inventions without permission. It is stealing something that is intellectual property and as I described in the beginning, creating something takes too much hard workand is not fair that somebody uses it without proper authorization.

Intellectual property represents ideas created by minds of humans that require certain rights for their use. Intellectual property gives companies a competitive advantage and attracts the attention of other business partners and investors (Lee, 2016). With such importance, it is necessary for the law to protect these ideas from being used by unauthorized individuals. To shield from this, trade secrets, patents, and copyrights are used to protect the ownership of intellectual property (Legal Information Institute).

For example, many pictures or written documentation can be altered with just a stroke a button. Two years ago, I knew a friend of mind that decided that he want to get back at his girlfriend because she had left him for another man. He decided to scan a picture of her online. He altered her picture by putting her face in a body of another female that was posing nude online; he then decided to e-mail the picture to her parents. This may sound bizarre, but stories like this one happen on a regular basis. In conclusion, I feel that copyright laws are very important, especially now that the internet give us virtually access to the world. I feel that protecting the work of people is just as important as protecting our first amendment rights. Each and every day the copyright laws get harder to implement the upsurge of better and faster technological advances.

The depth of China’s involvement in intellectual property theft is far greater than I would have ever expected. Prior to taking the business law course, I never thought about what intellectual property theft was or the impacts that it has. The report of the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, states that “China is the world’s largest source of Intellectual Property theft” (pg 10 & 11) costing the American economy hundreds of billions of dollars per year, along with millions of jobs.

Firstly, with laws to protect intellectual properties, it prevent and stop other companies from commercially using the protected intellectual properties in the marketplace, allowing the owner company to control the usage of their original

There is such a legal concept as "intellectual property". Intellectual property is defined as the creation of any intellectual innovation by an individual such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. The law provides him exclusive rights to this innovation and is strictly against theft or plagiarism in any way. Innovators can safeguard their property by one or more of the following: copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and in some jurisdictions trade secrets.. Copyrights, patents, and trade secrets are each authored by different Offices. Each is based on the Laws of Commerce. (LII. Intellectual property). Cultural attitudes, in fact, esteem words and knowledge above that of certain other property, since knowledge is something that cannot be as easily duplicated as, for instance, an article of common furniture can. To illustrate the veneration that contemporary society accords intellectual invention, software is more expensive and valuable than hardware sink the