Chapter 11: Intellectual Property

Intellectual property law includes trademarks, copyright statutes, and patents. These laws are intended to encourage creativity. If everyone could use other people's ideas and creative work, then there would be no reason for the original creators to continue writing, designing, or inventing.

In 1976, the Copyright Act was passed. This is the basis for copyright law. Facts, history, and ideas cannot be copyrighted. Some things like short phrases or titles cannot be copyrighted, but can possibly have trademark protection. Trademarks are only protected if they are distinctive; generic symbols or phrases cannot have protection. To be protected, a mark has to be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Domain names can be registered as trademarks to prevent people from creating specific domain names so they can sell them to companies.

Plagiarism is the use of someone else's work without giving them proper attribution. When someone creates something, they have the copyright ownership of that product. However, if you creates something for a company you work for, that company has the copyright to that product. Freelance journalists are considered the owners of their work and have the copyrights to their work.

The music industry is a common place to see copyright problems. Adele had her music pulled from Spotify because the royalties were so low. It is common for websites to have illegal access to music and movies, which is against copyright laws.

The most common defense against copyright infringement is fair use. This is a difficult concept to define, but most generally if it is used for educational purposes, it is considered fair use. A defendant can also claim fair use of a trademark if they used the mark to describe their goods rather than as a trademark and as long as it did not confuse consumer. When considering fair use the courts decide the purpose of the use, the amount of the work used, the nature of the work, and the impact on the plaintiff's potential market.