Intellectual Property Paper - Essay Example

Running Head: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MGM P2 Intellectual Property of Introduction People who originally create, develop, or invent objects and ideas have certain rights and privileges over the use and ownership of such items and ideas. Importantly, these owners, innovators, and creators of different works and ideas have the basic right to authorize others to use, reproduce, and/or sell their creations (Karaganis, 2011). There are two major types of intellectual property namely industrial property and copyright.

While industrial property right deals with product trademarks and patents, copyrights touches on poems, plays, music, drawings, novels and other literary works. Poems therefore fall under the copyright type of intellectual property, which empowers the poets and their publishers to prohibit and authorize any actions that others may execute on their creations. For instance, poets have the right to prohibit or allow the reproduction, republication and sound recording of their poems in various forms (Johns, 2009).

In addition, poets have the copyright to prohibit or authorize any public performances of their works in form of plays or musical performances. Furthermore, the recording of such literary works in cassettes, videotapes and compact discs or broadcasting by cable, television and radio must also be authorized by poets (Johns, 2009). Finally, poets also have a right to authorize or prohibit the translation of their works into other languages or inclusion in other works such as novels or screenplays.

Should anyone infringe on any of the above rights of authors and poets, there are certain legal courses of action that such a poet may opt to take up. Copyright Infringement The first course of legal action available to poets whose copyright have been abused is to accuse the perpetrators of copyright offenses of copyright infringement. Copyright infringement refers to the unlawful or banned use of literary works under copyright protection, violating the copyright holder's special rights such as the right to reproduce, make derivative works of and carry out performances of the copyrighted work (Johns, 2009).

The two main ways by which copyright may be infringed include theft and piracy. In this context, theft implies stealing any of the rights bestowed upon the owner of a literary work by the copyright and not the actual stealing of a tangible object. That is, the unlawful exercising of the any of the rights listed for the copyright owner. Piracy on the other hand refers to infringements on the monopoly of publication and reproduction that copyright gives to owners or creators of literary works or their assigned agents such as publishers (Johns, 2009).

Generally, copyright infringement is said to have occurred should a copyrighted literary work be distributed, performed, reproduced, publicly performed/displayed, or made into a derivative work devoid of the authorization of the patent owner. There are several Acts and Statutes that protect copyrighted works and their owners against copyright infringement. The Copyright Law of the United States One of the mostly applied laws to address copyright infringement is the Copyright Law of the United States.

However, there are other Acts and international agreements that have been established over the time to support the U.S Copyright law. These laws include the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), Internet Privacy Act, and the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act in the United States. Quite unique among these Acts is the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA) of the United States, which protects online service providers and their intermediaries against infringements on their copyrighted works (Karaganis, 2011).

On the other hand, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a multilateral agreement seeking to establish international standards on intellectual property (industrial and copyright) rights enforcement (Correa & Li, 2009). Moreover, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) calls for all signatory countries to formulate and implement criminal procedures and penalties in cases of "willful intellectual property counterfeiting or copyright piracy on a commercial scale (Correa & Li, 2009).

Still, there are certain statutes that limit the rights provided for in the above Acts. Fair Use Doctrine in Copyright There are several statutes that limit the exclusive rights given to owners of copyrights. The doctrine of ‘fair use’ is one of the statutes that limit the rights of copyright holders. These copyright limitations, as proposed by the ‘fair use’ doctrine may be broadly subdivided into Fair Use, Fair Use in the Copyright Act, and Fair Use Example for ease of analysis and study.

The ‘fair use’ statute seeks to establish a balance between copyright holders and the larger society’s interest, permitting copying in certain situations. In other terms, according to the statute, not all copying of literary work is prohibited. Particularly targeted by the ‘fair use’ doctrine are socially important circumstances such as in academic fields like teaching and research, criticism and reporting. Among the uses considered fair in the Copyright Act, which currently contains the ‘fair use’ doctrine are purposes and character of use such as commercial uses and nonprofit educational uses.

The other factors considered by the ‘fair use’ statute are the nature of the copyrighted work, the extent and essence of the fraction of the whole copyrighted work used and the effect of such a use on the value of the copyrighted work. An example of a fair use on a copyrighted literary work is the quotation of a passage or a stanza from a poem in a critical newspaper review of a poem. In the above use, the purpose and character of the use of the literary work are the two important factors considered according to the ‘fair use’ doctrine.

Conclusion Creators and owners of literary works are protected by copyright laws, which ensure that their works are not produced, published, or performed without their permission. To this effect, several Acts have been established to protect copyrighted works. Nonetheless, the ‘fair use’ doctrine allows limited copying or use of such works for social uses that are beneficial to the larger community such as criticism or reviews. References Correa, C. M., and Li, X. (2009). Intellectual property enforcement: international perspectives.

Edward Elgar Publishing. Johns, A. (2009). Piracy: The intellectual property wars from Gutenberg to Gates. University of Chicago Press. Karaganis, J. (2011). Media piracy in emerging economies. Social Science Research Council.