Aureal Semiconductor Inc. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-late 1990s for their PC sound card technologies including A3D and the Vortex (a line of audio ASICs .) The company was the reincarnation of the, at the time, bankrupt Media Vision Technology, who developed and manufactured multimedia peripherals such as the Pro Audio Spectrum 16 .
77-543: In May 1996, Aureal Semiconductor was founded from what previously was Media Vision Technologies Inc. after being involved in a financial scandal that led to then-CEO Paul Jain stepping down. Media Vision incurred approximately $ 104 million of aggregate losses in 1995 before the company was renamed. Aureal sustained further losses of $ 17 million in 1996 and $ 18 million in 1997. After having acquired Crystal River Engineering in May 1996, Aureal worked with them to develop and market
154-499: A "bias" by confusing these monopolies with ownership of limited physical things, likening them to "property rights". Stallman advocates referring to copyrights, patents and trademarks in the singular and warns against abstracting disparate laws into a collective term. He argues that, "to avoid spreading unnecessary bias and confusion, it is best to adopt a firm policy not to speak or even think in terms of 'intellectual property'." Similarly, economists Boldrin and Levine prefer to use
231-509: A 16-bit accelerator chip, an FM synthesis chip and a Mixed Signal DSP. In 1993, Media Vision updated its logotype to reflect its expanding product lines and broad foray into technologies beyond computer audio. Perhaps one of the biggest endeavors was the company's leap into software publishing with the creation of its Multimedia Publishing Group. CD-ROM titles such as Critical Path , Quantum Gate , and Forever Growing Garden were often bundled with its multimedia kits. The new logo reflected
308-453: A breach of civil law or criminal law, depending on the type of intellectual property involved, jurisdiction, and the nature of the action. As of 2011, trade in counterfeit copyrighted and trademarked works was a $ 600 billion industry worldwide and accounted for 5–7% of global trade. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine , IP has been a consideration in punishment of
385-526: A decade, resulting in criminal charges filed against Jain in 1998, his unsuccessful indictment on 27 counts of financial fraud, and judgments against Jain and CFO Steve Allen. After seeking protection under Chapter 11 of the federal Bankruptcy Code in December 1994, Media Vision Technology Inc. was renamed Aureal Semiconductor Inc. in May 1996. Media Vision's products included PC adapter cards, other hardware, and computer games. Internally, Media Vision
462-670: A limited period of time. Supporters argue that because IP laws allow people to protect their original ideas and prevent unauthorized copying, creators derive greater individual economic benefit from the information and intellectual goods they create, and thus have more economic incentives to create them in the first place. Advocates of IP believe that these economic incentives and legal protections stimulate innovation and contribute to technological progress of certain kinds. The intangible nature of intellectual property presents difficulties when compared with traditional property like land or goods. Unlike traditional property, intellectual property
539-402: A lower price. Balancing rights so that they are strong enough to encourage the creation of information and intellectual goods but not so strong that they prevent their wide use is the primary focus of modern intellectual property law. By exchanging limited exclusive rights for disclosure of inventions and creative works, society and the patentee/copyright owner mutually benefit, and an incentive
616-567: A lower price. Balancing rights so that they are strong enough to encourage the creation of intellectual goods but not so strong that they prevent the goods' wide use is the primary focus of modern intellectual property law. The Venetian Patent Statute of 19 March 1474, established by the Republic of Venice , is usually considered to be the earliest codified patent system in the world. It states that patents might be granted for "any new and ingenious device, not previously made", provided it
693-478: A man has a natural and absolute right—and if a natural and absolute, then necessarily a perpetual, right—of property, in the ideas, of which he is the discoverer or creator; that his right of property, in ideas, is intrinsically the same as, and stands on identically the same grounds with, his right of property in material things; that no distinction, of principle, exists between the two cases". Writer Ayn Rand argued in her book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal that
770-516: A paradigm shift". Indeed, up until the early 2000s, the global IP regime used to be dominated by high standards of protection characteristic of IP laws from Europe or the United States, with a vision that uniform application of these standards over every country and to several fields with little consideration over social, cultural or environmental values or of the national level of economic development. Morin argues that "the emerging discourse of
847-438: A patent for five, ten or fifteen years." In Europe, French author A. Nion mentioned propriété intellectuelle in his Droits civils des auteurs, artistes et inventeurs , published in 1846. Until recently, the purpose of intellectual property law was to give as little protection as possible in order to encourage innovation . Historically, therefore, legal protection was granted only when necessary to encourage invention, and it
SECTION 10
#1732772984557924-451: A release to Creative from any infringement by Creative of Aureal's intellectual property including A3D . The purchase effectively eliminated Creative's only competition in the gaming audio market, and with it any requirements for Creative to pay past or future royalties as well as damages for products which incorporated Aureal's technology. Contrary to OEM companies (such as Creative which builds, brands and sells their own devices), Aureal
1001-410: A two- or three-dimensional pattern used to produce a product, industrial commodity or handicraft. Generally speaking, it is what makes a product look appealing, and as such, it increases the commercial value of goods. Plant breeders' rights or plant variety rights are the rights to commercially use a new variety of a plant . The variety must, amongst others, be novel and distinct and for registration
1078-432: Is "indivisible", since an unlimited number of people can in theory "consume" an intellectual good without its being depleted. Additionally, investments in intellectual goods suffer from appropriation problems: Landowners can surround their land with a robust fence and hire armed guards to protect it, but producers of information or literature can usually do little to stop their first buyer from replicating it and selling it at
1155-476: Is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents , copyrights , trademarks , and trade secrets . The modern concept of intellectual property developed in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. The term "intellectual property" began to be used in
1232-549: Is a form of right granted by the government to an inventor or their successor-in-title, giving the owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, and importing an invention for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem, which may be a product or a process, and generally has to fulfill three main requirements: it has to be new , not obvious and there needs to be an industrial applicability . To enrich
1309-601: Is a trade secret for Coca-Cola .) The main purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goods for consumers. To achieve this, the law gives people and businesses property rights to the information and intellectual goods they create, usually for a limited period of time. Because they can then profit from them, this gives economic incentive for their creation. The intangible nature of intellectual property presents difficulties when compared with traditional property like land or goods. Unlike traditional property, intellectual property
1386-416: Is an extension of an individual. Utilitarians believe that intellectual property stimulates social progress and pushes people to further innovation. Lockeans argue that intellectual property is justified based on deservedness and hard work. Various moral justifications for private property can be used to argue in favor of the morality of intellectual property, such as: Lysander Spooner (1855) argues "that
1463-668: Is considered similarly high in other developed nations, such as those in the European Union. In the UK, IP has become a recognised asset class for use in pension-led funding and other types of business finance. However, in 2013, the UK Intellectual Property Office stated: "There are millions of intangible business assets whose value is either not being leveraged at all, or only being leveraged inadvertently". An October 2023 study released by Americans for
1540-460: Is created for inventors and authors to create and disclose their work. Some commentators have noted that the objective 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 reason, more is better. The thinking is that creators will not have sufficient incentive to invent unless they are legally entitled to capture
1617-635: Is different from violations of other intellectual property laws, since by definition trade secrets are secret, while patents and registered copyrights and trademarks are publicly available. In the United States, trade secrets are protected under state law, and states have nearly universally adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act . The United States also has federal law in the form of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 ( 18 U.S.C. §§ 1831 – 1839 ), which makes
SECTION 20
#17327729845571694-431: Is for dynamic or interactive environments such as simulations, games, video conference, and remote learning. A3D is not as effective for static productions such as movies which typically employ surround sound. A3D uses a subset of the actual in-game 3D world data to accurately model the location of both direct (A3Dspace) and reflected (A3Dverb) sound streams (A3D 2.0 can perform up to 60 first-order reflections). EAX 1.0,
1771-432: Is indivisible—an unlimited number of people can "consume" an intellectual good without it being depleted. Additionally, investments in intellectual goods suffer from problems of appropriation—while a landowner can surround their land with a robust fence and hire armed guards to protect it, a producer of information or an intellectual good can usually do very little to stop their first buyer from replicating it and selling it at
1848-678: Is the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The TRIPS Agreement sets minimum international standards for IP which every member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) must comply with. A member's non-compliance with the TRIPS Agreement may be grounds for suit under the WTO's Dispute Settlement Mechanism . Bilateral and multi-lateral agreements often establish IP requirements above
1925-454: Is the technology used by Aureal Semiconductor in their Vortex line of PC sound chips to deliver three-dimensional sound through headphones, two or even four speakers. The technology used head-related transfer functions (HRTF), which the human ear interprets as spatial cues indicating the location of a particular sound source. Many modern sound cards and PC games incorporated A3D via license from Aureal. Due to Aureal's acquisition (see below)
2002-448: Is to promote, as a deliberate act of Government policy, creativity and the dissemination and application of its results and to encourage fair trading which would contribute to economic and social development. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) states that "effective enforcement of intellectual property rights is critical to sustaining economic growth across all industries and globally". Economists estimate that two-thirds of
2079-460: The API was discontinued. Media Vision Russell Faust , COO Steve Allan , CFO Dan Gochnauer , VP of Engineering Wayne Nakamura , Director of Manufacturing Bryan J. Colvin , Director of Hardware Engineering Tim Bratton , Director of Strategic Marketing Jim Gifford , Director of Software Engineering Doug Cody , Senior Software Engineer Media Vision Technology, Inc. ,
2156-505: The Apple IIc . In addition to Component Engineer James Persall , the engineering staff included electrical engineers: The Director of Software Engineering was Jim Gifford . Reporting to him were: The development of SCSI device drivers was outsourced to Trantor Systems . Sales staff included: Marketing staff included: Intellectual property This is an accepted version of this page Intellectual property ( IP )
2233-583: The fair use and fair dealing doctrine. Trademark infringement occurs when one party uses a trademark that is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party, in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the products or services of the other party. In many countries, a trademark receives protection without registration, but registering a trademark provides legal advantages for enforcement. Infringement can be addressed by civil litigation and, in several jurisdictions, under criminal law. Trade secret misappropriation
2310-514: The 1760s and 1770s over the extent to which authors and publishers of works also had rights deriving from 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 to this time, when a piece published in the Monthly Review in 1769 used the phrase. The first clear example of modern usage goes back as early as 1808, when it
2387-437: The 19th century, though it was not until the late 20th century that intellectual property became commonplace in most of the world's legal systems . Supporters of intellectual property laws often describe their main purpose as encouraging the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goods. To achieve this, the law gives people and businesses property rights to certain information and intellectual goods they create, usually for
Aureal Semiconductor - Misplaced Pages Continue
2464-510: The 8830 Vortex 2 chipset, there is an official Final Beta (v5.12.2568.0) available for download from a variety of sites which can be found via most internet search engines . There is also a modified version of the XP driver that can provide basic audio functionality for the Windows Vista operating system and may also function with Windows 7 beta releases . A3D ( Aureal 3-Dimensional )
2541-464: The A3D audio technology. The technology was incorporated into video games, surround sound systems and sound cards. On March 5, 1998 Creative Labs sued Aureal for patent infringement . Aureal countersued because they believed Creative was guilty of patent infringement. After numerous lawsuits Aureal won a favorable ruling in December 1999, which vindicated Aureal from these patent infringement claims, but
2618-728: The A3D technology is now part of the intellectual property of Creative Labs . The technology was originally developed by Crystal River Engineering for NASA 's Virtual Environment Workstation Project (VIEW). Crystal River later commercialized the technology with a series of products including the Convolvotron and the Acoustetron. Aureal acquired Crystal River in May 1996 and rebranded the technology A3D. A3D differs from various forms of discrete positional audio in that it only requires two speakers, while surround sound typically requires more than four. The particular advantage of A3D
2695-613: The Arts (AFTA) found that "nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences generated $ 151.7 billion in economic activity—$ 73.3 billion in spending by the organizations, which leveraged an additional $ 78.4 billion in event-related spending by their audiences." This spending supported 2.6 million jobs and generated $ 29.1 billion in local, state and federal tax revenue." 224,000 audience members and over 16,000 organizations in all 50 states and Puerto Rico were surveyed over an 18-month period to collect
2772-452: The EU, and which has not entered into force, requires that its parties add criminal penalties, including incarceration and fines, for copyright and trademark infringement, and obligated the parties to actively police for infringement. There are limitations and exceptions to copyright , allowing limited use of copyrighted works, which does not constitute infringement. Examples of such doctrines are
2849-512: The US), supplementary protection certificates for pharmaceutical products (after expiry of a patent protecting them), and database rights (in European law ). The term "industrial property" is sometimes used to refer to a large subset of intellectual property rights including patents, trademarks, industrial designs, utility models, service marks, trade names, and geographical indications. A patent
2926-467: The United States) but several jurisdictions incorporate infringement in criminal law also (for example, Argentina, China, France, Japan, Russia, South Korea). Copyright infringement is reproducing, distributing, displaying or performing a work , or to make derivative works , without permission from the copyright holder, which is typically a publisher or other business representing or assigned by
3003-417: The aggressor through trade sanctions, has been proposed as a method to prevent future wars of aggression involving nuclear weapons , and has caused concern about stifling innovation by keeping patent information secret. Patent infringement typically is caused by using or selling a patented invention without permission from the patent holder, i.e. from the patent owner. The scope of the patented invention or
3080-428: The body of knowledge and to stimulate innovation, it is an obligation for patent owners to disclose valuable information about their inventions to the public. A copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Copyright may apply to a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms, or "works". Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only
3157-423: The company's business plan while an engineer at National Semiconductor based on Jain's vision of evolving multimedia from VGA to audio and video. Jain raised funding, based on a business plan on a single sheet of paper, from top VCs such as Brentwood, Nazem, 3i and others. Media Vision became a publicly traded company in late 1992. In 1993, Media Vision took over Pellucid, a spin-off of Silicon Graphics to form
Aureal Semiconductor - Misplaced Pages Continue
3234-588: The company's desire to be known as a cutting-edge multimedia technology company. During the same year, the company expanded business operations into Europe with the establishment of Media Vision GmbH in Munich, Germany. Media Vision could not sustain its rise. On May 17, 1994, CEO Paul Jain stepped down as Media Vision and quickly became the subject of the longest-running securities fraud case in Silicon Valley history. The investigation and trial lasted nearly
3311-547: The competing technology at the time promoted by Creative Labs, simulated the environment with an adjustable reverb—it didn't calculate any actual reflections off the 3D surfaces. A3D was supported by 3DMark along with many other software titles of the late 1990s, including Half-Life , Unreal , Quake II , Soldier of Fortune , Jedi Knight , SiN , Quake III Arena (up to version 1.25), Unreal Tournament and Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force . Following Aureal Semiconductor's acquisition by Creative, support for
3388-590: The controversy, the agreement has extensively incorporated intellectual property rights into the global trading system for the first time in 1995, and has prevailed as the most comprehensive agreement reached by the world. Intellectual property rights include patents , copyright , industrial design rights , trademarks , plant variety rights , trade dress , geographical indications , and in some jurisdictions trade secrets . There are also more specialized or derived varieties of sui generis exclusive rights, such as circuit design rights (called mask work rights in
3465-444: The data. The WIPO treaty and several related international agreements underline that the protection of intellectual property rights is essential to maintaining economic growth. The WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook gives two reasons for intellectual property laws: One is to give statutory expression to the moral and economic rights of creators in their creations and the rights of the public in access to those creations. The second
3542-491: The design of a building) that signify the source of the product to consumers. A trade secret is a formula , practice, process, design , instrument, pattern , or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors and customers. There is no formal government protection granted; each business must take measures to guard its own trade secrets (e.g., Formula of its soft drinks
3619-520: The end of Elizabeth's reign, however, a patent represents a legal right obtained by an inventor providing for exclusive control over the production and sale of his mechanical or scientific invention. demonstrating the evolution of patents from royal prerogative to common-law doctrine. The term can be found used in an October 1845 Massachusetts Circuit Court ruling in the patent case Davoll et al. v. Brown , in which Justice Charles L. Woodbury wrote that "only in this way can we protect intellectual property,
3696-414: The evaluation of propagating material of the variety is considered. A trademark is a recognizable sign , design or expression that distinguishes a particular trader's products or services from similar products or services of other traders. Trade dress is a legal term of art that generally refers to characteristics of the visual and aesthetic appearance of a product or its packaging (or even
3773-510: The exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. ' " "Some commentators, such as David Levine and Michele Boldrin , dispute this justification. In 2013, the United States Patent and Trademark Office approximated that the worth of intellectual property to the U.S. economy is more than US$ 5 trillion and creates employment for an estimated 18 million American people. The value of intellectual property
3850-471: The extent of protection is defined in the claims of the granted patent. There is safe harbor in many jurisdictions to use a patented invention for research. This safe harbor does not exist in the US unless the research is done for purely philosophical purposes, or to gather data to prepare an application for regulatory approval of a drug. In general, patent infringement cases are handled under civil law (e.g., in
3927-429: The form or manner in which they are expressed. An industrial design right (sometimes called "design right" or design patent ) protects the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern and color in three-dimensional form containing aesthetic value. An industrial design can be
SECTION 50
#17327729845574004-751: The full social value of their inventions". This absolute protection or full value view treats intellectual property as another type of "real" property, typically adopting its law and rhetoric. Other recent developments in intellectual property law, such as the America Invents Act , stress international harmonization. Recently there has also been much debate over the desirability of using intellectual property rights to protect cultural heritage, including intangible ones, as well as over risks of commodification derived from this possibility. The issue still remains open in legal scholarship. These exclusive rights allow intellectual property owners to benefit from
4081-688: The global IP regime advocates for greater policy flexibility and greater access to knowledge, especially for developing countries." Indeed, with the Development Agenda adopted by WIPO in 2007, a set of 45 recommendations to adjust WIPO's activities to the specific needs of developing countries and aim to reduce distortions especially on issues such as patients' access to medicines, Internet users' access to information, farmers' access to seeds, programmers' access to source codes or students' access to scientific articles. However, this paradigm shift has not yet manifested itself in concrete legal reforms at
4158-802: The high quality of its positional audio. Near the end of Aureal's existence, they released a Vortex Advantage budget sound card aimed at systems integrators, which ran on the Vortex AU8810 chipset. Towards the end of 1999, the SQ3500 was announced, which ran on the Vortex AU8830 chipset, with the main addition being a new "Turbo DSP" daughter-board module. All Vortex soundcards are still functional with latest Windows 2000 / Windows XP drivers in Windows Vista and Windows 7 (32 bit editions only). While Windows XP will recognize and work with
4235-535: The international level. Similarly, it is based on these background that the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement requires members of the WTO to set minimum standards of legal protection, but its objective to have a "one-fits-all" protection law on Intellectual Property has been viewed with controversies regarding differences in the development level of countries. Despite
4312-460: The labors of the mind, productions and interests are as much a man's own ... as the wheat he cultivates, or the flocks he rears." The statement that "discoveries are ... property" goes back earlier. Section 1 of the French law of 1791 stated, "All new discoveries are the property of the author; to assure the inventor the property and temporary enjoyment of his discovery, there shall be delivered to him
4389-425: The legal costs were too high and Aureal filed for bankruptcy . On September 21, 2000, Creative acquired Aureal's assets from its bankruptcy trustee for US$ 32 million through the bankruptcy court , with the specific provision that Creative Labs would be released from all claims of past infringement by Creative Labs upon Aureal's A3D technology. The purchase included patents, trademarks, other property, as well as
4466-529: The new Visual Technology Group. Pellucid had taken over SGI's IrisVision business and developed high-performance video graphics cards, sold as the Pro Graphics 1024. After the demise of Media Vision, several of Pellucids employees founded 3dfx . Jain oversaw the development of several multimedia chips because he quickly realized that the audio board business would morph into audio chips on PC motherboards. Media Vision developed three complex chips such as
4543-453: The principle of Hasagat Ge'vul (unfair encroachment) was used to justify limited-term publisher (but not author) copyright in the 16th century. In 500 BCE, the government of the Greek state of Sybaris offered one year's patent "to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury". According to Jean-Frédéric Morin, "the global intellectual property regime is currently in the midst of
4620-673: The property they have created, providing a financial incentive for the creation of an investment in intellectual property, and, in case of patents, pay associated research and development costs. In the United States Article ;I Section 8 Clause 8 of the Constitution, commonly called the Patent and Copyright Clause, reads; "The Congress shall have power 'To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors
4697-583: The protection of intellectual property is essentially a moral issue. The belief is that the human mind itself is the source of wealth and survival and that all property at its base is intellectual property. To violate intellectual property is therefore no different morally than violating other property rights which compromises the very processes of survival and therefore constitutes an immoral act. Violation of intellectual property rights, called "infringement" with respect to patents, copyright, and trademarks, and "misappropriation" with respect to trade secrets, may be
SECTION 60
#17327729845574774-656: The requirements of the TRIPS Agreement. Criticism of the term intellectual property ranges from discussing its vagueness and abstract overreach to direct contention to the semantic validity of using words like property and rights in fashions that contradict practice and law. Many detractors think this term specially serves the doctrinal agenda of parties opposing reform in the public interest or otherwise abusing related legislations, and that it disallows intelligent discussion about specific and often unrelated aspects of copyright, patents, trademarks, etc. Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman argues that, although
4851-715: The strengthening of the IP system and subsequent economic growth." According to Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , "everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author". Although the relationship between intellectual property and human rights is complex, there are moral arguments for intellectual property. The arguments that justify intellectual property fall into three major categories. Personality theorists believe intellectual property
4928-462: The term intellectual property is in wide use, it should be rejected altogether, because it "systematically distorts and confuses these issues, and its use was and is promoted by those who gain from this confusion". He claims that the term "operates as a catch-all to lump together disparate laws [which] originated separately, evolved differently, cover different activities, have different rules, and raise different public policy issues" and that it creates
5005-702: The term intellectual property in their new combined title, the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property . The organization subsequently relocated to Geneva in 1960 and was succeeded in 1967 with the establishment of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) by treaty as an agency of the United Nations . According to legal scholar Mark Lemley , it
5082-403: The theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime. This law contains two provisions criminalizing two sorts of activity. The first, 18 U.S.C. § 1831(a) , criminalizes the theft of trade secrets to benefit foreign powers. The second, 18 U.S.C. § 1832 , criminalizes their theft for commercial or economic purposes. (The statutory penalties are different for
5159-431: The two offenses.) In Commonwealth common law jurisdictions, confidentiality and trade secrets are regarded as an equitable right rather than a property right but penalties for theft are roughly the same as in the United States. The international governance of IP involves multiple overlapping institutions and forums. There is no overall rule-making body. One of the most important aspects of global IP governance
5236-542: The value of large businesses in the United States can be traced to intangible assets. "IP-intensive industries" are estimated to generate 72% more value added (price minus material cost) per employee than "non-IP-intensive industries". A joint research project of the WIPO and the United Nations University measuring the impact of IP systems on six Asian countries found "a positive correlation between
5313-400: The work's creator. It is often called "piracy". In the United States, while copyright is created the instant a work is fixed, generally the copyright holder can only get money damages if the owner registers the copyright. Enforcement of copyright is generally the responsibility of the copyright holder. The ACTA trade agreement , signed in May 2011 by the United States, Japan, Switzerland, and
5390-529: Was a fabless semiconductor company. This changed with their final product: the Aureal SuperQuad. However, to not anger the middlemen, Aureal did no marketing of its self-branded product. The Vortex audio accelerator chipset line from Aureal Semiconductor was designed to improve performance of their then-popular A3D audio technology. The first member of the line, the Vortex AU8820,
5467-632: Was an American electronics manufacturer of primarily computer sound cards and CD-ROM kits, operating from 1990 to approximately 1995 in Fremont, California . Media Vision was widely known for its Pro AudioSpectrum PC sound cards—which it often bundled with CD-ROM drives—it is also known for its spectacular growth and demise. Media Vision was founded in May 1990 by Paul Jain and Tim Bratton. Early employees also included Russ Faust, Michael Humphries, Dan Gochnauer, Bryan Colvin and Doug Cody, all from Jain's prior company, Video Seven . As Bratton recalls, he wrote
5544-553: Was announced on July 14, 1997, and was used in by a number of sound card manufacturers, like Turtle Beach and TerraTec . After Aureal's release of A3D 2.0, the Vortex AU8830 (known as the Vortex 2) was announced on August 6, 1998. The Vortex 2 chipset won numerous industry awards, and was used among other places in the Diamond Monster Sound MX300, which achieved near-cult status with audiophiles and gamers for
5621-700: Was dominated by its large engineering and marketing departments, roughly equal in size and reporting to the Chief Operating Officer Russell Faust . Director of Manufacturing Wayne Nakamura also reported to the COO. The company's engineering efforts were headed by VP of Engineering Dan Gochnauer , formerly of the Sperry-Rand Corporation . The Director of Hardware Engineering was Bryan J. Colvin , once an early employee of Apple Computer , where he designed much of
5698-448: Was limited in time and scope. This is mainly as a result of knowledge being traditionally viewed as a public good, in order to allow its extensive dissemination and improvement. The concept's origin can potentially be traced back further. Jewish law includes several considerations whose effects are similar to those of modern intellectual property laws, though the notion of intellectual creations as property does not seem to exist—notably
5775-522: Was only at this point that the term really began to be used in the United States (which had not been a party to the Berne Convention), and it did not enter popular usage there until passage of the Bayh–Dole Act in 1980. The history of patents does not begin with inventions, but rather with royal grants by Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) for monopoly privileges. Approximately 200 years after
5852-727: Was used as a heading title in a collection of essays. The German equivalent was used with the founding of the North German Confederation whose constitution granted legislative power over the protection of intellectual property ( Schutz des geistigen Eigentums ) to the confederation. When the administrative secretariats established by the Paris Convention (1883) and the Berne Convention (1886) merged in 1893, they located in Berne, and also adopted
5929-523: Was useful. By and large, these principles still remain the basic principles of current patent laws. The Statute of Monopolies (1624) and the British Statute of Anne (1710) are seen as the origins of the current patent law and copyright respectively, firmly establishing the concept of intellectual property. "Literary property" was the term predominantly used in the British legal debates of
#556443