Intellectual property is a broad concept. What IP means to us, might mean something else to you. To understand what it means to us, we start from the official definition and expand on it to make it suit the needs of what we think intellectual property should be.
Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the intellect for which a monopoly is assigned to designated owners by law. Intellectual property rights (IPRs) are the rights granted to the creators of IP, and include trademarks, copyright, patents, industrial design rights, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. Artistic works including music and literature, as well as discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols, and designs can all be protected as intellectual property.
source: wikipedia
We think this definition is quite clear, but there's one thing that stands out that we'd like to see changed.
By Law
The fact that intellectual property is defined by law is something we find worying. A lot of questions arise.
- Who's law?
- What are de procedures to identify intellectual property?
- Who defines who owns a piece of intellectual property?
- How is intellectual property registered?
- Is the law the only way to formally verify the registration of intellectual property?