How Important, and How Effective Are Laws Protecting Intellectual Property - Essay Example

Running Head: BUSINESS PROPERTY LAW Business Property Law Name Tutor Date Business Property Law How Important, And How Effective Are Laws Protecting Intellectual Property? Introduction Intellectual Property basically refers to things that are not touchable. Some of the intellectual property includes inventions or even music. And just as there are laws to protect real property and personal property, there are laws that protect intellectual property. One will find that these laws protecting intellectual property will vary from country to country. For example in the United States, these laws subsist in two levels. These are at the state and the federal levels. As a result, the laws show a discrepancy to some extent in various states. iAt the federal level, both Constitution and legislation are endorsed under the Constitution and specifically handle patents as well as copyrights (Jonathan, 2010).1 Moreover, the laws deal with trademarks and associated areas facing unjust competition. One will also find there are different laws somewhere else. For example in Australia, the Australian patent legislation consists of; 1990 Patents Act. This Act offers the patent owner special rights to utilize the invention commercially as long as the patent lasts. The other intellectual property laws in Australia are; 1987 Plant Variety Rights Act and 1994 Plant Breeder's Rights Act. These two are laws are extremely important since they offer special commercial rights to market the invented product in addition to its reproductive material. Equally, in New Zealand the main legislation that deals with intellectual property is the Patents Act 1953 and the Plant Variety Rights Act 1987. Accordingly, the intellectual property laws are different in the United Kingdom.ii Here, UK the Patents Act 2004 was established on 1st January 2005 (McKeough & Stewart, 2010). 2 Laws protecting IP There are divergent laws regarding the protection of intellectual property. For example, The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, that was completed concluded in 1883, forms the foundation for international intellectual property system and complements the Berne Convention. These laws are important in that they protect the industrial property: this include inventions, trademarks, industrial designs, utility models, trade names along with geographical indications. Moreover, the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) provides an avenue to concurrently get patent protection for an invention in many nations; about 164 countries are a part of this treatyiii. (Paul, 2006).3 Consequently, there are various types of intellectual property laws. These are; copyright laws that do protect creative like movies, music or even drawings, trade secrets that cater for intellectual property by use of tort and contracts to remedy breach, assault among others. Trade secrets are generally created by common law. Trademarks are normally used to safeguard company or industrial products. Patents are also intellectual property laws that are recognized by states. As a result, the state will put in place laws to protect themiv (Vaver, 2006).4 Patents can therefore be described as a law protecting intellectual prorperty that mainly focuses on a certain procedure carried out by a person. This will inturn give the inventor of that particular procedure rights to exclusively benefit from his discovery exists. Awarding a patent for a discovery gives the possessor with an exclusive right to keep out others from either production, or using the original invention as far as the patent is in place. They cannot sell the original or analogous version of the invention. On the other hand, the inventor has got to disclose a full depiction of the discovery. Different states give different lifespans to their respective patents. For example in Australia, it lasts for a period of 20 years. Usually, the inventor will submit an application for a patentv. (Paul, 2006).5 The importance of patent ought not to be underestimated. It is effective in that it for example offers protection or safeguards business methods or ideas. However much it may not cover areas such as artistic works, it undertakes the above task of safeguarding business methods. In today’s world, business carries the day as compared to other sectors. Therefore, playing this role means a lot to the creators of those methods as well as the world at largevi (Rachel, 2004).6 Copyright laws are equally important in that they do protect creative like movies, music or even drawings. Bernt Hugenholtz, in his paper, Rights Allocation In A Digital Environment, gives the five major reasons for copyright protection. They take account of; Personality; this means that the owner’s work is supposed to have the individual imprint of its maker. As a result, copyright offers the owner the exclusive right which is a type of a right of personality. There is also ‘Natural law', whereby copyright demonstrates notions of natural justice on the intellectual work/productvii (Paul, 2006).7 Benefits of IP laws Additionally, intellectual property laws have come with economic benefits. On this note, copyright protection encourages and enhances economic efficiency, through optimization of distribution of the scarce resources by making use of the pricing system. There are also notable benefits of the intellectual property laws on social and cultural goods; copyright has played an important role in being an incentive when it comes to the creation and dissemination of works that are extremely important both socially and culturally. What’s more, these laws have brought about the freedom of expression. Copyright has been effective in rendering the creators independent of Maecenas, State or financial support: in short, copyright is the key driver to existing freedom of expression in many nations by protecting the owner’s workviii (Lilla, 2010).8 In 1793 a law was set up in France which designated that people are not allowed to perform or use the works of authors who are still alive without being authorized by them. The law also denoted that the individuals who inherit the author’s work have the same rights for a period of five years after the demise of the valid authorix. (Paul, 2006).9 Plagiarism is also another problem that is covered and protected by intellectual property law. This is because it is the work of an artist or a writer and it has to be protected. He has to enjoy the fruits of his labor. While reacting to the intensification of the many article locations some of the entrepreneurs have come up with gadgets that do sense any plagiarized material in somebody’s work. They are now being offered to teachers in higher learning institutions to detect whatever materials the students might have plagiarized. The gadgets will compare the student’s work with other works in different websites. They go further and detect certain materials a student may have taken from a previous student may be taking the same course or units. They will mainly compare the main words or the wording in the sentences. Similarly, sentences may be similar. All this amounts to plagiarism. There are several services set for the task of detecting plagiarism. Some of them are; Plagiarism.com, which is a Glatt Plagiarism Service to notice any materials that might have been plagiarizedx (Jay, 1991).10 It does so by giving away plagiarism discovery materials such as computer programs. Essay Verification Engine. It is also called the EVE2. This service is there courtesy of the United States. Interested parties will download it from the internet and install it into their machines and use lit to compare materials that are in soft copy, for example in the email. This service is has greatly helped is detecting. For instance, JPlag does not only compare the text of the documents. It has the ability to pore over software program language syntax in addition to program configuration. There is also the WordCheck. KeyWORD service. This service compares the main words in a text to others that are in a document in a certain site. This service also applies to materials that are submitted in form of a soft copy. In this regard, intellectual laws have played a big role in ensuring that students, researchers as well as some others do not steal others work through plagiarismxi (Mark, 2008).11 Copy catch is a product of the United Kingdom "forensic automated collusion and plagiarism" programmer. It matches up to any materials that might have been switched from one learning institution to another. Still, there is also a United States based commercial service called CiteMaster. This service has been encouraged as using "supercomputer processing power" to evaluate works of different students with a proprietary catalog of books, magazines, articles, academic journals and essays. There is the Measure of Software. It is also called MOSS. This device is used to identify plagiarism in software development. For example, to discover resemblance in C++, Java and Pascal programsxii (Mark, 2008).12 Effects of IP laws Intellectual property laws enable the writers to have their works protected by the state or the law. As a result, courts have accordingly been hard in litigation by students, with for example a United States District Court judge in A.V. etal v. iParadigms, LLC, No.07-293 (E.D. Va. 2007). In this case, a motion for synopsis discharge of copyright breach claimed by four high school students whose work had been incorporated into the Turnitin database was offered. The database worker got the discharge on the basis of the fair use defense under the United States copyright law and on the grounds that agreement between the students and their school disallowed the assistance they were in the hunt for. This illustration shows clearly how intellectual property laws have been effectivexiii (Robert, 2002).13 Creator’s rights Ghostwriting is the process of appointing a writer to invent or write a document on his behalf that is later presumed to be belonging to the appointer. The appointer presents the work as his own. Moral Rights, every now and then expressed as the 'droit moral', is a creation of Europe. The moral rights do not mainly concentrate on the morals of the commissioner. They instead have the view that the writer or creator is the deserving owner and has the exclusive rights to: Be acknowledged as the person responsible for the works No forged acknowledgment of authorship, meaning that nobody other than the writer is to be identified as the owner or the writer. Put a stop to others in case they intend to alter, misrepresent, or otherwise meddling with the veracity of those works. That particular right is not dependent of that particular material item: for example, the artiste will maintain the moral rights even if he disposes or sells that particular work of art. Each and every state has different modes of application of the laws in regard to moral rights. Australia has had an unclear position. It offers that the current copyright and trade practices legislation do offer appropriate attribution and integrity protection. Simultaneously, it has moved to lengthen that particular safety, even though by a means that may be regarded to be an alienable right. For example in France moral rights are perpetual.xiv (Mark, 2008).14 The effect of the laws protecting Intellectual Property is very imperative. This cannot be stated better. For example, moral rights do try to safeguard the inventor’s honor and repute. In this regard I refer to an article by Bartlett Cleland concerning moral rights. He argues that intellectual property laws are made of the rights of attribution. This means that they laws identify and acknowledge the valid owner of the work irrespective of who purchase the work. These laws also bring about integrity to the owners. Consequently, intellectual property laws gives the authentic owner the right to object to disparaging acts prejudicial to the creator's honor in addition to reputation, for instance; distortion, mutilation or modification of the work without permission, disclosure and withdrawal (withdraw means the owner holds the right to decide if and when material is can be publicizedxv (William, 2002).15 Moral Rights are an indispensable aspect of European intellectual property legislation and cultural safety system. They are preserved under the international Berne Convention, the main focus in regard to the worldwide copyright system. This means that the moral rights of the owner can at no anytime be separated from the creatorxvi (Mark, 2008). 16 Contribution of IP laws to the economy Intellectual property laws have greatly contributed to the economic growth. For example in United State, these laws have been accredited with notable contributions to the economy of the country. According to economists, two-thirds of the worth of key businesses within the United State is allied to intangible assets, which represents intellectual property. Intellectual property companies have been found to generate about 72% more value added per worker, when compared to the non-intellectual property industries. Furthermore, a study project examining the effect of intellectual property systems on six nations within Asia discovered a positive connection between the intensification of the intellectual property system and succeeding economic growthxvii (Uma, 2008).17 Intellectual property laws promote innovations in addition to rewarding entrepreneurs. In this regard, risk and sporadic failure are the means of support when it comes to innovation economy. As a result, intellectual property laws, encourage the entrepreneurs to go on pushing and searching any new developments within the face of adversityxviii (Graham, 2004).18 The laws also provide intellectual property laws that facilitate the information flow through the sharing of the protected knowledge which is very crucial to the primary, patented innovation. Therefore, this process bears new and more innovations, and also developments on the existing innovations. This can be demonstrated by the acknowledgement by American’s Founding Fathers on the significance of invention that strict and effective intellectual property laws for both authors and inventors are protected within the constitution of the United States of America: accordingly, this is what has made the America the global “idea factory”. Apparently, this resulted from the large number of patents, copyrights along with trademarks filed by the United State every year. It is this effective protection of the intellectual property brought America from the agrarian society it was initially to the industrial powerhouse it is currently. This practically shows the importance and efficacy of intellectual property lawsxix (Birgitte, 2006).19 The importance and effect of these laws is clear from the above report. These laws ensure that there is fairness, justice, freedom and order in the society. As long as the law is applied and followed to the latter, and the cost of the law system is relatively law, there will be the best possible allotment of the resources. The effect of these laws will be that; whatever infringement may arise, and then it will not go any further, but will be stopped at the earliest time possible. This will be either through administrative or civil procedures. Of equal importance is that the cost will without doubt be relatively law. The holder of the intellectual property will be saved so much time. So will his money. This will occur due to an administrative raid actionxx (Neave et al, 2004).20 Similarly, any damage that may result from an infringement will be catered for and compensated efficiently. This is because cases regarding intellectual property will be resolved in the courts. The laws protecting intellectual property are also important in that they provide a financial motivation. The exclusive rights give authority to the valid holders of the intellectual property to benefit from the property that they established. This has been in effective in that it encourages others to come up with such inventions or likewise invest a lot in intellectual propertyxxi (Gabriel, 2007).21 The importance of intellectual property and its protection is so clear. Effective and enforced intellectual property laws protect both consumers and families as well. Effective intellectual property laws are important in assisting the consumers to make an informed choice concerning the safety, reliability and also effectiveness of their purchases. This is because the consumers are in a position to buy the original products and not the copied works. Intellectual property rights also make sure that the products are valid and therefore of the quality that consumers acknowledge and expect. Furthermore, intellectual property laws have been effective in promoting the confidence that clients demand and markets they depend onxxii (Thomas, 2003).22 Conclusion In conclusion, the mere presence of the intellectual property laws is attributed for playing a big role towards the growth of the economy. For example as stated earlier in the United States, economists approximate that two-thirds of the value of big business can be attributed to intangible property. A joint research project by the WIPO together with the United Nations University determining the effect of Intellectual Property structures on 6 nations from Asia concluded that there was "a positive correlation between the strengthening of the IP system and subsequent economic growth"xxiii (National Library Australia, 1998).23 End Notes Read More