Owning the Products of The Mind
Intellectual property is one of those phrases that makes a lot of people's eyes cross. It sounds interesting, but what the hell is it? Well, it's all about owning the products of the mind. Here's a list of some things that are intellectual property:
Writing - fiction, nonfiction, and poetry
Photographs
Movies
Recorded Music
Sheet Music
Inventions
Secret processes
One of the great dreams of our industrial society is that one who builds “a better mousetrap” will have to deal with a lot of front-door traffic. This is of course a misleading notion. It is not that person who invents or builds the better product who will harvest the profits; rather, it is that person who owns the right to produce, market and distribute the product who will get the profits from the sales.
That is why most of the law of intellectual property is about how large companies can acquire the “intellectual property rights” of creators and inventors for purposes of commercial exploitation. A singer can sing a song, but only Fox can turn the singer into an American Idol. An inventor can discover a cure for cancer, but only the drug industry can deliver it to millions of cancer victims and collect cash for the cure. A screenwriter can write a spellbinding film treatment of a great work of fiction, but neither the screenwriter nor the fiction writer will collect a penny unless someone like Spielberg produces it. And so it goes.
If you are dreaming of building the better mousetrap, or writing a hit song, or publishing the Great American Novel, it would behoove you to learn a little about Intellectual Property, including copyrights, trademarks, patents and trade secrets. Click here to go directly to Charles' Primer of Online Media Law, which deals with all of these subjects.
Writing - fiction, nonfiction, and poetry
Photographs
Movies
Recorded Music
Sheet Music
Inventions
Secret processes
One of the great dreams of our industrial society is that one who builds “a better mousetrap” will have to deal with a lot of front-door traffic. This is of course a misleading notion. It is not that person who invents or builds the better product who will harvest the profits; rather, it is that person who owns the right to produce, market and distribute the product who will get the profits from the sales.
That is why most of the law of intellectual property is about how large companies can acquire the “intellectual property rights” of creators and inventors for purposes of commercial exploitation. A singer can sing a song, but only Fox can turn the singer into an American Idol. An inventor can discover a cure for cancer, but only the drug industry can deliver it to millions of cancer victims and collect cash for the cure. A screenwriter can write a spellbinding film treatment of a great work of fiction, but neither the screenwriter nor the fiction writer will collect a penny unless someone like Spielberg produces it. And so it goes.
If you are dreaming of building the better mousetrap, or writing a hit song, or publishing the Great American Novel, it would behoove you to learn a little about Intellectual Property, including copyrights, trademarks, patents and trade secrets. Click here to go directly to Charles' Primer of Online Media Law, which deals with all of these subjects.