Jimbo

Intellectual property: basic premises and historical context

Intellectual property (IP) is the term that describes the ideas, inventions,
technologies, artworks, music and literature, that are intangible
when first created, but become valuable in tangible form as products
forms of IP – patents, copyright, trademarks, and other
evolving forms
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)The Venetian Law of 1474 is often
referred to as the first systematic approach to protecting inventions by a
form of patent, as it stipulated an exclusive right of an individual which
limited the public interest for the first time.
the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in
1883, the first major international treaty designed to help the people of
one country obtainprotection in other countries for their intellectual creations.
The convention establishing WIPO of 19671 5 stipulates that IP shall
include rights relating to the following:
1 . Literary, artistic and scientific works
2 . Performances of performing artists, phonograms, and broadcasts
3 . Inventions in all fields of human endeavor
4 . Scientific discoveries
5 . Industrial designs
6 . Marksand commercial names and designations
7 . Protection against unfair competition
8 . All other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial,
scientific, literary, and artistic fields.
Patent (Invention)
A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention (a product or a
process that provides a new way of doing something, or offers a new
technical solution to a problem).It provides protection for the invention
for a limited period, generally 20 years from the filing date, in the country or countries in which it is patented, in exchange for the inventor’s public
disclosure of the invention. A patent owner has the right to decide
who may – or may not – use the patented invention, and may give permission
to, or license, other parties to use the invention onmutually
a g reed terms. The owner may also sell the right to the invention to someone
else, who will then become the new owner of the patent.1 7 Once a
patent expires, the protection ends, and the invention may be used by
anyone .1 8
Trademark
A trademark or “mark” is a distinctive name, logo or sign1 9 identifying the
source of goods or services. Trademarks help consumers distinguish aproduct or service from one source from those produced by another
source. A mark provides protection to its owner by preventing confusion
as to source in connection with the distribution of goods or services or
licensing others to use them. The period of protection varies, but a mark
can remain valid indefinitely through continued commercial use or a registration
and renewal process.
Patents andtrademarks are often referred to collectively as “industrial
property”.
Copyright and Related Rights

Copyright consists of a bundle of rights given to creators in their literary
and artistic works. The creator
of a work can prohibit or authorize,2 0 for example:

• its re production in various forms, such as a printed publication
or a phonorecord;
• its public performance, as in a playor musical work;
• its broadcasting, including by radio, television, or satellite;
• its translation into other languages, or its adaptation, such as
the adaptation of a novel into a screenplay.
These economic rights have a time limit, according to the re l e v a n t
WIPO treaty, of the life of the author plus 50 years after the author’s death.
In some countries, that term has been extendedto 70 years. Copyright may
also include moral rights, which involve the right to claim authorship of a
work, and the right to oppose changes to it that could harm the creator’s
reputation
The process of economic growth
classical economists believed that
capital and technological progress contributed to the way an economy
grew.
Ricardo and Malthus, thought that in the long
term,...