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WHY PROTECT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY?

WHY PROTECT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY?


What is bad about it?

  • Intellectual property protection can stifle creators who are good. 
  • It punished good people because of bad people’s actions.
  • It makes creating new content hard, since it is so easy to run into copyright accidentally, or infringe on a patent easily etc.
  • In an ideal world, yes, we would have no Intellectual Property Protection, and everyone could use everyone else’s ideas. Without any problem.


But...


People have a tendency to take advantage of situations.
Not everyone is good, and good people aren’t always good.


What is Good About it?

Copyright

Consider the scenario, you have created a song, and you are really, really proud of your work. You post it online and it is slow to spread because you don’t know many people, or you don’t know how to spread your song.

A larger company with a large following sees your song, and posts it under their name, with no reference to you. They go viral with the song and make millions upon millions of dollars, and the song is consistently referenced as being theirs, without any mention of you.

Would you like this sort of situation? Copyright law is in place to stop this sort of thing happening, and allows you to have control over who can use your content.

Patent

Or with an invention, say you have created a new invention, and it is ground-breaking and will change the world. You show it to a company to get their thoughts on it and whether they would be able to make and distribute it. You haven’t gotten a patent or patent pending, or used an NDA, as you trust the company. After the meeting you don’t hear from the company for several months.

Suddenly one week, you pass one of their distribution shops and see your device on sale, and massive posters indicating that it is becoming quite a success. You look online and find out they have been selling it for a couple of months and have been making loads of money from it. They have cut you out of the market and stolen your idea and without intellectual property protection, you are powerless.

Deterrent Qualities

IP protection won’t always work, similar to how a lock on a bike won’t always stop a thief… But it adds a very good layer of deterrent, which will allow the ‘other party’ to give you the respect you deserve for your creation, rather than passing it off as their own. It may be annoying, but it is there to protect the creators from being taken advantage of. I agree that there could be better arrangements and management of intellectual property especially regarding online content with copyright infringement, but IP law is supposed to be there to help you.

Not using IP Protection

You can by all means not use intellectual property protection, and risk it… And I do think that by there being intellectual property protection in place in the world, this acts as a deterrent for you! It may not work, and you may be taken advantage of, but that is your choice!

Good Patent Attorneys

A good Patent attorney will ensure only the necessary parts of a creation are patented. We actively try to avoid giving people too much power and creating monopolies on the market!!

Greatest Asset

Intellectual Property is often a business’s greatest asset. The value of a Trade Mark, patent, or copyright to a company can mean an incredible amount to that company, in both goodwill, and in monetary return. If IP was not able to be protected, that would mean companies could not retain value, and would flatten out.

Encourage Innovation

Intellectual Property protection encourages invention (so long as protections do not create a monopoly) – it makes people try to think of different new and inventive ways to achieve something, rather than just building slowly and iteratively on others’ work. It also allows people to create their own content in terms of copyright, rather than just using the same things over and over and over... IP protection has allowed for an increase in invention and innovation in a significant way!

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