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117-771: The Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom (often referred to as the UK IPO ) is, since 2 April 2007, the operating name of The Patent Office . It is the official government body responsible for intellectual property rights in the UK and is an executive agency of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). The IPO has direct administrative responsibility for examining and issuing or rejecting patents, and maintaining registers of intellectual property including patents , designs and trade marks in
234-499: 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
351-606: A Patent Bill Office, under the control of the Attorney General , which was part of the old patent system. It had been located in Lincoln's Inn . Significantly, the process of applying for a patent was extremely complicated and largely set up to ensure fees were paid to various officials (patent fees formed a significant part of the stipend of the Attorney and Solicitor General ). The Patent Law Amendment Act 1852 brought
468-453: 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
585-670: 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
702-402: 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
819-567: 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
936-478: 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
1053-471: A nuisance, or another tort has been held a taking of property where the conduct was sufficiently persistent and severe. There exist many theories of property. One is the relatively rare first possession theory of property , where ownership of something is seen as justified simply by someone seizing something before someone else does. Perhaps one of the most popular is the natural rights definition of property rights as advanced by John Locke . Locke advanced
1170-516: 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
1287-438: 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
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#17327802384641404-418: A possessory interest or legal title in that thing. This mediating relationship between individual, property, and State is called a property regime. In sociology and anthropology , property is often defined as a relationship between two or more individuals and an object, in which at least one of these individuals holds a bundle of rights over the object. The distinction between collective and private property
1521-449: A resource based on the practical inability to contradict the ends of the possessor. The second title is the expectation that others will recognize rights to control resources, even when not in possession. He elaborates on the differences between these two concepts and proposes a history of how they came to be attached to persons, as opposed to families or entities such as the church. Both communism and some forms of socialism have also upheld
1638-433: A scarcity justification, since the things don't have the exclusivity property (however, those who support a scarcity justification may still support other "intellectual property" laws such as Copyright , as long as these are a subject of contract instead of government arbitration). Thus even ardent propertarians may disagree about IP. By either standard, one's body is one's property. From some anarchist points of view,
1755-422: A single party at a time, or a single party in a divisible context, if owned or used. Thus far or usually, those are not considered property, or at least not private property, even though the party bearing right of exclusive use may transfer that right to another. In many societies the human body is considered property of some kind or other. The question of the ownership and rights to one's body arise in general in
1872-410: 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
1989-432: 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
2106-476: 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
2223-549: 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
2340-435: Is a great property, there is great inequality … Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all. In his 1881 text "The Common Law", Oliver Wendell Holmes describes property as having two fundamental aspects. The first, possession, can be defined as control over
2457-409: Is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, rent, sell, exchange, transfer, give away, or destroy it, or to exclude others from doing these things, as well as to perhaps abandon it; whereas regardless of the nature of
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#17327802384642574-601: 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
2691-464: Is an expectation that each party's will with regard to the property be clearly defined and unconditional. . The parties may expect their wills to be unanimous, or alternatively each may expect their own will to be sufficient when no opportunity for dispute exists. The first Restatement defines property as anything, tangible or intangible, whereby a legal relationship between persons and the State enforces
2808-416: 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
2925-516: Is based on The Public Trust Doctrine. ), celestial bodies and outer space, and land in Antarctica . The nature of children under the age of majority is another contested issue here. In ancient societies, children were generally considered the property of their parents. However, children in most modern communities theoretically own their bodies but are not regarded as competent to exercise their rights. Their parents or guardians are given most of
3042-620: 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
3159-460: 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
3276-635: 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
3393-492: Is his safest refuge]." It is the origin of the famous dictum, "an Englishman's home is his castle". The ruling enshrined into law what several English writers had espoused in the 16th century. Unlike the rest of Europe the British had a proclivity towards owning their own homes. British Prime Minister William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham defined the meaning of castle in 1763, "The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all
3510-432: 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
3627-467: Is no private property under natural law but only under human law . Seneca viewed property as only becoming necessary when men become avaricious. St. Ambrose later adopted this view and St. Augustine even derided heretics for complaining the Emperor could not confiscate property they had labored for. The canon law Decretum Gratiani maintained that mere human law creates property, repeating
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3744-640: Is often defined by the code of the local sovereignty and protected wholly or - more usually, partially - by such entity, the owner being responsible for any remainder of protection. The standards of the proof concerning proofs of ownerships are also addressed by the code of the local sovereignty, and such entity plays a role accordingly, typically somewhat managerial . Some philosophers assert that property rights arise from social convention , while others find justifications for them in morality or in natural law . Various scholarly disciplines (such as law , economics , anthropology or sociology ) may treat
3861-562: Is regarded as confusion, since different individuals often hold differing rights over a single object. Types of property include real property (the combination of land and any improvements to or on the ground), personal property (physical possessions belonging to a person), private property (property owned by legal persons, business entities or individual natural persons), public property (State-owned or publicly owned and available possessions) and intellectual property —including exclusive rights over artistic creations and inventions. However,
3978-594: Is such that an article of property is, by law or otherwise by traditional conceptualization, subject to expiration even when inheritable , which is a key distinction from tangible property. Upon expiration, the property, if of the intellectual category, becomes a part of public domain , to be used by but not owned by anybody, and possibly used by more than one party simultaneously due to the inapplicability of scarcity to intellectual property. Whereas things such as communications channels and pairs of electromagnetic spectrum bands and signal transmission power can only be used by
4095-526: Is surely undeniable that, when a man engages in remunerative labor, the impelling reason and motive of his work is to obtain property, and after that to hold it as his very own." Anthropology studies the diverse ownership systems, rights of use and transfer, and possession under the term "theories of property". As mentioned, western legal theory is based on the owner of property being a legal person. However, not all property systems are founded on this basis. In every culture studied, ownership and possession are
4212-678: 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
4329-441: Is the combination of interests in land and improvements thereto, and personal property is interest in movable property. Real property rights are rights relating to the land. These rights include ownership and usage. Owners can grant rights to persons and entities in the form of leases , licenses , and easements . Throughout the last centuries of the second millennium , with the development of more complex theories of property,
4446-448: 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
4563-735: The Patent Office , the Office of the Commissioners for Patents, was established by the Patent Law Amendment Act 1852 and opened on 1 October that year. While this is claimed as the date the modern Intellectual Property Office was created it was in fact created later, along with the office of the comptroller under section 82 of the Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Act 1883 ( 46 & 47 Vict. c. 57). There had been
4680-575: The Patents and Design Act 1907 (though most of the remainder of this Act has been repealed), but the substantive duties of the IPO are set out in other legislation, including: Each of these Acts of Parliament has been extensively amended since it was first passed. The Manual of Patent Practice sets out the relevant patent law and the operational practice of the Intellectual Property Office in relation to patents. The forerunner of
4797-495: The commons . The term "commons," however, is also often used to mean something entirely different: "general collective ownership"—i.e. common ownership . Also, the same term is sometimes used by statists to mean government-owned property that the general public is allowed to access ( public property ). Law in all societies has tended to reduce the number of things not having clear owners. Supporters of property rights argue that this enables better protection of scarce resources due to
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4914-583: 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
5031-771: The seafloor (see the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea for restrictions), gases in Earth's atmosphere , animals in the wild (although in most nations, animals are tied to the land. In the United States and Canada , wildlife is generally defined in statute as property of the State. This public ownership of wildlife is referred to as the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and
5148-513: The spiritual body that runs them. Intellectual property and air ( airspace , no-fly zone , pollution laws, which can include tradable emissions rights ) can be property in some senses of the word. Ownership of land can be held separately from the ownership of rights over that land, including sporting rights, mineral rights , development rights, air rights , and such other rights as may be worth segregating from simple land ownership. Ownership laws may vary widely among countries depending on
5265-442: The telos of property, i.e., what is the purpose of property? His answer: to solve the scarcity problem. Only when items are relatively scarce concerning people's desires, do they become property. For example, hunter-gatherers did not consider land to be property, since there was no shortage of land. Agrarian societies later made arable land property, as it was scarce. For something to be economically scarce, it must necessarily have
5382-616: The tragedy of the commons . At the same time, critics say that it leads to the 'exploitation' of those resources for personal gain and that it hinders taking advantage of potential network effects . These arguments have differing validity for different types of "property"—things that are not scarce are, for instance, not subject to the tragedy of the commons . Some apparent critics advocate general collective ownership rather than ownerlessness. Things that do not have owners include: ideas (except for intellectual property ), seawater (which is, however, protected by anti-pollution laws), parts of
5499-409: The value of legal tender if not the legal tender itself , as the manufacturer rather than the possessor might be the owner. They often distinguish tangible and intangible property . One categorization scheme specifies three species of property: land, improvements (immovable man-made things), and personal property (movable man-made things). In common law , real property ( immovable property )
5616-418: The "exclusivity property"—that use by one person excludes others from using it. These two justifications lead to different conclusions on what can be property. Intellectual property —incorporeal things like ideas, plans, orderings and arrangements (musical compositions, novels, computer programs)—are generally considered valid property to those who support an effort justification, but invalid to those who support
5733-514: 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
5850-437: 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
5967-613: 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
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#17327802384646084-452: 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
6201-641: The Inca empire, the dead emperors, considered gods, still controlled property after death. In 17th-century England , the legal directive that nobody may enter a home (which in the 17th century would typically have been male-owned) unless by the owner's invitation or consent, was established as common law in Sir Edward Coke 's " Institutes of the Lawes of England ". "For a man's house is his castle, et domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium [and each man's home
6318-675: The Patent Museum (opened to the public in 1863 in South Kensington , it went on to become a core collection of the new Science Museum there). From its early days, the Patent Office was based in the Chancery Lane area of London, where it eventually spread to fill the area between Furnival Street and Southampton Buildings. The principal entrance was at 25 Southampton Buildings, where a purpose-built headquarters
6435-540: The UK. As in most countries, there is no statutory register of copyright and the IPO does not conduct any direct administration in copyright matters. The IPO is led by the Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, who is also Registrar of Trade Marks, Registrar of Designs and Chief Executive of the IPO: The existence of the Patent Office and the post of Comptroller-General are required by
6552-512: 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
6669-467: 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
6786-417: 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
6903-428: 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
7020-481: The cause, of the distribution of property. He said that the worst possible situation is when the commoners have half a nation's property, with the crown and nobility holding the other half—a circumstance fraught with instability and violence. He suggested a much better situation (a stable republic) would exist once the commoners own most property. In later years, the ranks of Harrington's admirers included American revolutionary and founder John Adams . Another member of
7137-491: The citizens respectively who made, or may rightfully own them: Provided, that the citizens of the Nation possessing the exclusive and indefeasible right to their improvements, as expressed in this article, shall possess no right or power to dispose of their improvements, in any manner whatever, to the United States, individual States, or individual citizens thereof; and that, whenever any citizen shall remove with his effects out of
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#17327802384647254-573: The common interest, and only when he is himself concerned as an individual." In addition, he says that when property is common, there are natural problems that arise due to differences in labor: "If they do not share equally enjoyments and toils, those who labor much and get little will necessarily complain of those who labor little and receive or consume much. But indeed, there is always a difficulty in men living together and having all human relations in common, but especially in their having common property." ( Politics, 1261b34 ) Cicero held that there
7371-439: The concept more systematically, but definitions vary, most particularly when involving contracts . Positive law defines such rights, and the judiciary can adjudicate and enforce property rights. According to Adam Smith (1723-1790), the expectation of profit from "improving one's stock of capital" rests on private-property rights. Capitalism has as a central assumption that property rights encourage their holders to develop
7488-515: The concept of personal property had become divided into tangible property (such as cars and clothing ) and intangible property (such as financial assets and related rights, including stocks and bonds ; intellectual property , including patents , copyrights and trademarks ; digital files ; communication channels ; and certain forms of identifier , including Internet domain names , some forms of network address , some forms of handle and again trademarks). Treatment of intangible property
7605-590: 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
7722-444: 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
7839-491: 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
7956-626: The discussion of human rights , including the specific issues of slavery , conscription , rights of children under the age of majority , marriage , abortion , prostitution , drugs , euthanasia and organ donation . Of the following, only sale and at-will sharing involve no encumbrance . The two major justifications are given for the original property, or the homestead principle , are effort and scarcity. John Locke emphasized effort, "mixing your labor" with an object, or clearing and cultivating virgin land. Benjamin Tucker preferred to look at
8073-416: The doctrine of sovereign immunity precludes relief. Moreover, if the interference does not almost completely make the property valueless, the interference will not be deemed a taking but instead a mere regulation of use. On the other hand, some governmental regulations of property use have been deemed so severe that they have been considered " regulatory takings ." Moreover, conduct is sometimes deemed only
8190-520: 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,
8307-540: The entire social and political unit. Common ownership in a hypothetical communist society is distinguished from primitive forms of common property that have existed throughout history, such as Communalism and primitive communism , in that communist common ownership is the outcome of social and technological developments leading to the elimination of material scarcity in society. Corporate systems describe ownership as being attached to an identifiable group with an identifiable responsible individual. The Roman property law
8424-414: 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
8541-510: 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
8658-471: 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
8775-421: The fact that they help a man form those expectations which he can reasonably hold in his dealings with others. These expectations find expression in society's laws, customs, and more. An owner of property rights possesses the consent of fellowmen to allow him to act in particular ways. An owner expects the community to prevent others from interfering with his actions, provided that these actions are not prohibited in
8892-526: The forces of the crown. It may be frail – its roof may shake – the wind may blow through it – the storm may enter – the rain may enter – but the King of England cannot enter." That principle was carried to the United States. Under U.S. law, the principal limitations on whether and the extent to which the State may interfere with property rights are set by the Constitution. The Takings clause requires that
9009-429: 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
9126-751: 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
9243-464: The fundamental rights of control over them. Questions regarding the nature of ownership of the body also come up in the issue of abortion , drugs , and euthanasia . In many ancient legal systems (e.g., early Roman law ), religious sites (e.g. temples ) were considered property of the God or gods they were devoted to. However, religious pluralism makes it more convenient to have sacred sites owned by
9360-688: 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
9477-405: The government (whether State or federal—for the 14th Amendment's due process clause imposes the 5th Amendment's takings clause on state governments) may take private property only for a public purpose after exercising due process of law, and upon making "just compensation." If an interest is not deemed a "property" right or the conduct is merely an intentional tort, these limitations do not apply, and
9594-413: The idea of "giving to every man his own," a phrase he drew from the writings of Cicero . But he wondered: How can anybody call anything his own? A contemporary of Hobbes, James Harrington , reacted to the same tumult differently: he considered property natural but not inevitable. The author of " Oceana ," he may have been the first political theorist to postulate that political power is a consequence, not
9711-535: 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
9828-700: The king of the Sumerian city-state Lagash , established the first laws that forbade compelling the sale of property. The Bible in Leviticus 19:11 and ibid. 19:13 states that the Israelites are not to steal. Aristotle , in Politics, advocates "private property." He argues that self-interest leads to neglect of the commons. "[T]hat which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Everyone thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of
9945-460: 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
10062-399: The latter is not always widely recognized or enforced. An article of property may have physical and incorporeal parts. A title , or a right of ownership , establishes the relation between the property and other persons, assuring the owner the right to dispose of the property as the owner sees fit. The unqualified term "property" is often used to refer specifically to real property. Property
10179-535: The limits of this Nation, and become a citizen of any other government, all his rights and privileges as a citizen of this Nation shall cease: Provided, nevertheless, That the National Council shall have power to re-admit, by law, to all the rights of citizenship, any such person or persons who may, at any time, desire to return to the Nation, on memorializing the National Council for such readmission. Communal property systems describe ownership as belonging to
10296-427: The nature of the property of interest (e.g., firearms, real property, personal property, animals). Persons can own property directly. In most societies legal entities , such as corporations , trusts and nations (or governments) own property. In many countries women have limited access to property following restrictive inheritance and family laws, under which only men have actual or formal rights to own property. In
10413-873: The notion that private ownership of capital is inherently illegitimate. This argument centers on the idea that private ownership of capital always benefits one class over another, giving rise to domination through this privately owned capital. Communists do not oppose personal property that is "hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned" (as " The Communist Manifesto " puts it) by members of the proletariat . Both socialism and communism distinguish carefully between private ownership of capital (land, factories, resources, etc.) and private property (homes, material objects, and so forth). Most legal systems distinguish between different types of property, especially between land ( immovable property , estate in land , real estate , real property ) and all other forms of property— goods and chattels , movable property or personal property , including
10530-519: The phrases used by St. Augustine. St. Thomas Aquinas agreed with regard to the private consumption of property but modified patristic theory in finding that the private possession of property is necessary. Thomas Aquinas concludes that, given certain detailed provisions, The principal writings of Thomas Hobbes appeared between 1640 and 1651—during and immediately following the war between forces loyal to King Charles I and those loyal to Parliament . In his own words, Hobbes' reflection began with
10647-453: 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
10764-399: The process of patent grant into a single office serving the whole of the United Kingdom (where previously a petitioner had had to apply and pay fees to several offices, and to obtain separate patents for each of the UK's constituent nations). Initially, people applying for a patent often used to submit a detailed model of their submission; these were retained and the collection became known as
10881-612: 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
10998-400: The property, generate wealth , and efficiently allocate resources based on the operation of markets. From this has evolved the modern conception of property as a right enforced by positive law, in the expectation that this will produce more wealth and better standards of living. However, Smith also expressed a very critical view of the effects of property laws on inequality: Wherever there
11115-455: The property, the owner thereof has the right to properly use it under the granted property rights . In economics and political economy , there are three broad forms of property: private property , public property , and collective property (or cooperative propert y). Property may be jointly owned by more than one party equally or unequally, or according to simple or complex agreements; to distinguish ownership and easement from rent, there
11232-583: 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
11349-656: 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
11466-417: The specifications of his rights. Different societies may have other theories of property for differing types of ownership. For example, Pauline Peters argued that property systems are not isolable from the social fabric, and notions of property may not be stated as such but instead may be framed in negative terms: for example, the taboo system among Polynesian peoples. In medieval and Renaissance Europe
11583-715: 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
11700-497: The subjects of custom and regulation, and "law" is where the term can meaningfully be applied. Many tribal cultures balance individual rights with the laws of collective groups: tribes, families, associations, and nations. For example, the 1839 Cherokee Constitution frames the issue in these terms: Sec. 2. The lands of the Cherokee Nation shall remain common property. Still, the improvements made thereon, and in possession of
11817-462: 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
11934-400: The term "intellectual monopoly" as a more appropriate and clear definition of the concept, which, they argue, is very dissimilar from property rights. They further argued that "stronger patents do little or nothing to encourage innovation", mainly explained by its tendency to create market monopolies, thereby restricting further innovations and technology transfer. Property Property
12051-402: The term "property" essentially referred to land. After much rethinking, land has come to be regarded as only a special case of the property genus. This rethinking was inspired by at least three broad features of early modern Europe: the surge of commerce, the breakdown of efforts to prohibit interest (then called " usury "), and the development of centralized national monarchies . Urukagina ,
12168-702: 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
12285-403: 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
12402-446: The theory that God granted dominion over nature to man through Adam in the book of Genesis. Therefore, he theorized that when one mixes one's labor with nature, one gains a relationship with that part of nature with which the labor is mixed, subject to the limitation that there should be "enough, and as good, left in common for others." (see Lockean proviso ) In his encyclical letter Rerum novarum (1891), Pope Leo XIII wrote, "It
12519-431: 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
12636-572: The validity of property depends on whether the "property right" requires enforcement by the State. Different forms of "property" require different amounts of enforcement: intellectual property requires a great deal of state intervention to enforce, ownership of distant physical property requires quite a lot, ownership of carried objects requires very little. In contrast, requesting one's own body requires absolutely no state intervention. So some anarchists don't believe in property at all. Many things have existed that did not have an owner , sometimes called
12753-542: 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
12870-449: 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
12987-467: Was based on such a corporate system. In a well-known paper that contributed to the creation of the field of law and economics in the late 1960s, the American scholar Harold Demsetz described how the concept of property rights makes social interactions easier: In the world of Robinson Crusoe , property rights play no role. Property rights are an instrument of society and derive their significance from
13104-502: Was constructed in 1899–1902 (architect: Sir John Taylor ). The principal interior space was the Library, a "harsh but spectacular space 140ft long, lit from skylights and a clerestory , with two tiers of steel-framed, fireproofed galleries on cast iron Corinthian columns ". Designed to allow members of the public to consult patent records, it also contained a very extensive collection of technical and scientific publications, which in 1967
13221-448: 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
13338-522: 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
13455-545: Was transferred to the British Library . In 1991, having outgrown its original premises, the Patent Office moved to Newport , South East Wales , where the IPO headquarters remains to this day. A small branch office in London has been maintained for the benefit of the large professional community based there and for communication with central government. Intellectual property Intellectual property ( IP )
13572-727: 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
13689-468: 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
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