Property ownership is a foundation of modern business
and
economic systems. Businesses exist largely based on property
and ownership rights and the law provides a means to protect these rights. Property rights include
possession and the right
to transfer property (by sale,
gift, lease) or allow the use of property (license). By allowing ownership of property, the law gives rights
that allow people and businesses to control the way their property
is used.
Although important differences, reasons for recognizing IP are similar
to reasons for tangible property.
Property rights exist because we say they do, whether tangible or
intangible.
If a resource requires labor to create or convert it into something
useful, we’re likely to attach property rights to it.
Philosophy of
John Locke - ownership derived from labor; each
person has right to the fruits of his creation
"Though the Earth, and
all inferior Creatures be common to all Men, yet every Man has a
Property in his own Person. This no Body had any Right to
but himself. The Labour of his Body, and the Work of
his Hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes
out of the State that Nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath
mixed his Labour with, and joyned to it something that is his
own, and thereby makes it his Property. It being by him
removed from the common state Nature placed it in, it hath by this
labour something annexed to it, that excludes the common
right of other Men. For this Labour being the unquestionable
Property of the Labourer, no Man but he can have a right to what
that is once joyned to, at least where there is enough, and as good
left in common for others." Two Treatises of Government, 2nd
Treatise (1690)
Creativity that results in a non-physical product can be just as
valid as someone who builds something
Since
tangible property is
visible and has physical existence, its not hard for people
to understand that its property that can be owned. Whether
real property such as a house or personal property such as a car,
a computer,
a CD or a DVD, all of these things can be seen and are
easily perceived as having value and being owned as
property. People tend to have a much more difficult time
understanding
intangible
property which does not exist physically and
cannot be seen. However, some intangible things such
as
stock or copyrights, patents and trademarks can still
have value. Although its not directly perceivable or visible,
the law provides for ownership rights in intangible property
to protect its value. While you can't possess intangible
property itself, it is possible to possess something evidencing rights
of ownership in intangible property. Just as a
stock certificates represent ownership shares in
corporation, a
copyright registration evidences ownership of a
copyright (even though registration is not required to own a
copyright).
Intellectual Property
(IP) refers to certain types of intangible property that generally provides protection for
the results of creativity
(products originating from a person’s mind). Intellectual
property is similar to physical property in many respects.
For example, it can be bought and sold. However, it is also
different from tangible property in some respects. Unlike
tangible property, a copyrighted work (which is one type of
intellectual property) cannot be
possessed although it can be owned. While you can posses a physical
object a copyright is embodied in (such as a CD or sheet music),
you can't possess the copyright (such as a song) itself.
This is an important distinction - Copyrighted works are
separate pieces of property from any tangible property
(e.g., CD, videotape, book) they may be contained in.
Physical
Objects
It is
important to understand that a copyright is not any
particular piece of physical property itself, but the
intangible creation that is contained in some physical
object..
Since intellectual property
is intangible, the rights that an owner has can
easily be infringed. A copyright owner can't really lock up
a copyright (although there are some forms of "digital
locks") or hide it from people (at least once its been made
available).
A
trademark
is something which is used to identify a
company’s goods or services and to distinguish them from
others’ goods or services.
Names are
commonly used as trademarks as well as
slogans
and logos.
Provides guarantee of quality
& consistency of products or services.
Patents
protect various types of
inventions,
discoveries & some
designs. A patent gives its owner the
exclusive right to make, use and market the patented device for a
limited time period (i.e., 20 years). At the end of the 20
year patent period, the patent expires and the formerly
patented material can be freely copied.
Once the secret is
lost, trade secret protection is lost as well. For example,
the
Coca-Cola formula is an extremely valuable trade secret
and the Coca-Cola company goes to great lengths to keep it
secret. See News Article:
3 Accused in Theft of Coke Secrets
Some items may be
protected under more than one type of intellectual property law.
For example, a
computer
program
might potentially be protected under copyright, patent and trade secret law.
Mickey Mouse is a
copyrighted cartoon character used in Disney motion
pictures, TV shows, videos, and comics, but Mickey's name
and image are also used as trademarks to identify various
Disney brand merchandise.
Mickey IP
The
original Steamboat Willie & modern Mickey are
copyrighted characters while Mickey, as used to sell
items such as boxer shorts, functions as a trademark.
Here's a 1928 animated cartoon featuring a very
young Mickey.
Question: What,
if any, intellectual property rights are
involved in this video clip and can it be
legally posted on YouTube?
