Question

What are some of the reasons that intellectual property requires different legal protections than tangible or real property?

Answer 1

Intellectual property is that type of property which includes tangible creations of the human intellect.There are many types of intellectual property and they are copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets. If we define intellectual property some more, we can say that it is the inventions, ideas, designs and creations of individuals that are protected by U.S law. The intellectual property was passed by U.S Congress and they are administrated by two govenment agencies, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Copyright Office.  Article 1 of the U.S . Constitution grants Congress the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive right to their writings and discoveries. We can say that protecting the writings and discoveries of the individulas will be a public good to the country.

Through protecting intellectual property it will encourage creative people to create new ideas and innovations. It provides incentives to those people by ensuring they can earn profit from their works without fear of misappropriation by others. Through patent, the inventors get the right to sell their creation in the market or to transfer the right to some one and can earn profit from it. The validy of the petant is 20 years and it will change according to the type of invention. Patent is given to items like new machines, manufacturing goods, technological improvements etc. Patent protection will deny if the invention is found to be obvious in design, not useful and morally offensive.

Trademarks protect symbols, names ad slogans used to identify goods and services. It will help tomavoid confusion, deter misleading advertising and help consumers distinguish one brand from another. Generic or descriptive marks may not be qualify for trademarks. The rights is simply made by a mark and it is lifelong. The owners can also register the mark for extra protection.

Copyrights is given to writings, music, motion pictures, architecture and other original intellectual and artistic expressions. Protection is not given for theories or ideas that has not been captured in a fixed medium. Unpublished works will also get copyright protection. The validity of copyright is lifelong plus 70 years. The owners will also get protection from infringement. Infringement refers to the unauthorized use of intellectual property. The owners want to take step to protect thier inventions from infringement.. If infringement occur, rights to intellectual property can be enforced in federal court. Inventors can give notice of their rights by marking their product with the patent number assigned to it by the Patent and Trademark Office. Notice of the trademarks and copyrights is given by appropriate symbol on the material.

The reason why special protection is given to intellectual property is that it is threaten by theft. Many companies and people want to face this theft. There are many laws for protecting the invention from the theft. many companies in the ICt industry are heavily dependent on their intellectual property. There is aforeign policy aspect to IP theft. The U.S. Trde Representative publishes a Special 301 Report on global enforcement of IP rights. So it is very necessary to protect Intellectual property from every threats.