Intellectual Property Rights

“Intellectual Property Rights are the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.” The creations of mind are like inventions, industrial design for article, literacy and artistic work, symbols that are used in commerce.

Intellectualproperty rights are broadly divided into two categories: Industrial property and Copyright. Industrial property includes features like inventions, trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source. On the other hand, Copyright includes literacy and artistic works such as novels, poems, plays, films and musical works etc.

In contemporary digital, multimedia, cyber-world; IPRs is extensively growing phenomenon and proved its importance over the time to safeguard the intellectual capital and intangible assets. Therefore, “individuals, firms and the public sector are using IPRs to privatize knowledge-based assets and creative expressions.”¹  

WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) defines further the boundaries of IRPs. WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook: Policy, Law and Use; classify additionally the needs, importance and legal aspects of intellectual property rights.

A Common person may also benefit from this IP rights. IP rights reward creativity and human endeavor which fuel the progress of humankind. For instance, the huge source of entertainment world, the multibillion dollar film, recording, publishing and software industries that devote their work in bringing pleasure to millions of people worldwide- would not exist without copyright protection. And since the patent system provides rewards, researchers and inventors gets extra incentives to continue producing better and more efficient products for consumers.

References:

1-      Andersen, B. (ed.) (2006). Intellectual property rights: innovation, governance and the institutional Environment. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.

Image References:

http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/images/ipr.gif [Accessed: 30-11-2011]

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/usinfo/30145/ejs/ipr_600.jpg [Accessed: 30-11-2011]

http://www.second-man.com/wp-content/uploads/Ryan/iprightscampaign/ip_ad_worth_protecting.jpg [Accessed: 30-11-2011]