Table of Contents
Overview of Intellectual Property 3
Types of Intellectual Property Rights 3
Industrial property 4
Copyright 5
Controversy of Intellectual Property 5
Intellectual Property in the Digital Age 7
No Electronic Theft Act 9
Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 9
Case Study Involving Intellectual Property – Domain Names 9
Conclusion 11
Overview of Intellectual Property
The term intellectual property refers to the innovations of the human mind. Intellectual property rights protect the interests of these innovators by giving them property rights attached to those ideas. The term "intellectual property rights" stands for these legal rights that authors, inventors, and other creators have. Intellectual property laws relate to a particular way in which ideas or information is expressed or displayed, but not the actual ideas or exact concept itself.
The first use of the expression "intellectual property" appears to be October 1845, in Davoll vs. Brown, a patent case in Massachusetts. Justice Charles Woodbury said that "only in this way can we protect intellectual property, the labors of the mind, productions and interests as much a man's own...as the wheat he cultivates, or the flocks he rears." Though coined many years prior, the term has only become popular very recently. It was uncommon to hear the expression until the establishment of the World Intellectual Property Organization in 1967, which then actively promoted the term.
Types of Intellectual Property Rights
There are currently many different ways to protect intellectual property. Intellectual property is divided into two main categories: industrial property, which includes patents, trademarks, industrial designs, and geographical indication; and copyright.
Industrial property
Patent: This is an exclusive right granted for an invention, a plant, or an appearance. A patent provides protection to the owner of the patent for a limited period, typically 20 years