2-27-09

Intellectual Property

• Designs for products appearance

• Literature, art, and music
• Trademarks from brand identity
• Inventions
• Trade secrets
• Performer’s rights
• Conditional access technology
• New plant varieties
• Etc

How do I get a copyright?

• A copyright exists from the moment the work is created in a

fixed, tangible form of expression
• Although registering a copyright is not necessary to securing
one, it is a legal formality to create a public record
• Copyrights give the creator full rights and financial benefits to
reproduction, performance, distribution, and display of the work

Copyright Act of 1790

• Created to encourage scientists, authors, and artists to create

original works
• Provided monopoly to creator for 14 years, later changed to 18
years
• In 1976, copyright laws were extended to unpublished works and
for the first time took into account how technological
advancements could affect copyrights

Boiler plating

• Refers to a portion of text that can be reused without being

changed much, if at all, from the original
• These “printing plates” were used by the printing press for mass
reproduction
• Another form is the “boiler”, a short blurb that describes a
company or product
• Most frequently used in programming languages

Miscellaneous
 • At one time copyrights did not exist
• Spoken word did not cite sources—still doesn’t
• Epithets
• Homeostasis

Technology’s Impact

• The internet makes it difficult to verify the authorship and

authenticity of a document.
• HTML code is copied and pasted by programmers and web
designers everyday
• Entire published novels are reproduced on the web without the
writers knowledge