Protecting Intellectual Property - Essay Example

Essay plan: Protecting Intellectual Property Marjorie Allen Although businesses should take as much care of their ideas as they do the rest of their property, they frequently fail to do so. (Essay title A) Ideas can be considered intellectual property if they are developed into a specific plan from idea to useful structure. By looking into all aspects of the way in which the idea can be presented in the workplace and protecting that presentation through copyright, patent, design rights, or trademarks (Business Link: Protecting Your Intellectual Property, 2005), the idea then becomes an intellectual property with the owner holding certain exclusive rights depending on the method of protection that is chosen. Because protection of intellectual property is a fairly recent concern in business, many people starting up businesses in this electronic age are unaware of how to protect their properties. The plan for this essay is to discuss different ways of protecting an intellectual property, i.e. whether it is a written manuscript, an invention for the workplace, a design unique to a specific company, or a trademark that will identify exclusively the company that owns it. Each type of property requires a different method of protection. Which method fits which property is the main thrust of this essay plan. Each method will be discussed and will include a model of the intellectual property for which the method is best suited. References will be annotated and presented in Harvard style. The body of the essay will expand on each model, discussing methods of protection and the steps needed to safeguard a specific intellectual property. Model A A writer has developed a manuscript of 300 pages on how to start an online business. He considers his ideas unique and is convinced there are no published books that utilize his ideas. How can he protect this intellectual property This property calls for a copyright, and there are several ways to get one. The simplest way for those who have concerns about protection, is to mail your manuscript to yourself, and when you receive it, don't open it. File it away. This, however, is not really necessary. Copyright in the UK doesn't require registration. It lasts for 70 years after the death of the creator, and you can mark your work with the international copyright symbol followed by your name and the year of creation (Business Link: Copyright, 2005, p. 3) Model B John Smith has created a plan for his invention, a suit with a special lining which allows a steady supply of oxygen to flow into the diver's helmet when he is underwater, negating the need for an oxygen tank. How can he protect his invention For an invention of this type, the patent is the protection that is needed. The paragraph quoted below is a definition of a patent: A patent is a right granted by a government to an inventor. It gives the inventor the exclusive right, for a limited period, to stop others from making, using or selling the inventor's product without the permission of the inventor." (Monosoff, "Patents Defined," 2005, p. 2) However, simply having a patent on a product will not guarantee success in the marketplace (Home Business Idea, 2005, p. 2). If there is a plan on paper of how the suit will be made, the printed plan can then be eligible for a copyright. By holding a patent and a copyright, and establishing a registered trade mark for your patented design, all areas are covered. Model C A successful information technology company has designed new packaging for all of its programs. They wish to protect this packaging because they don't want other companies to use similar designs that might interfere with their marketing. How do they protect their design ideas Design right is automatic providing the design is original and not commonplace. In addition to automatic protection, your new design on an established product should be registered with the Patent Office. "This will give you the right to make, use or stock any item incorporating your design - and take action against those who infringe this right. (Business Link: Design Right and Registration, 2005, p. 2.) Model D George has designed a trade mark for the small company he works for. It is so distinctive it will capture the market's attention immediately. They don't have a trade mark. How can the company protect the design and how will they benefit from doing so To register a trade mark, it is necessary to first conduct a search to make sure nobody has registered a similar trade mark. Make sure your trade mark is exactly as you want it. It can't be altered after you apply. Also make sure you have a list of all of the goods and services it covers because you cannot add any later. Once you have a registered trade mark, you can sell or license it like any other piece of property. (Business Link: Trade Mark, 2005, p. 2). The above examples each basically cover only one area of Intellectual Property, but it is possible all four of the protections mentioned above might be necessary depending on the property under consideration. In the electronic society we now live in, a business asset such as a game program might need copyright protection for music and images, a patent to protect the software as well as a registered trade mark and registered designs to protect the packaging. As noted within the body of this proposed essay, references have been made to copyrighted material used in the written proposal in an effort to avoid academic misconduct as described below. Academic Misconduct To avoid any kind of academic misconduct in writing this paper, it was necessary to be aware of the different areas of possible misconduct. Copying a paragraph or an article verbatim from a source without any acknowledgement is definitely plagiarism. From there the possibilities are not as clear-cut, but as long as every source is made part of the reference pages and connected to information in the article, chances are there will be no allegation of plagiarism. One way of avoiding plagiarism is to take notes from various sources, making sure information about the source is complete, read the notes, outline the paper, write it in one's own words, use quotes from sources, and provide a detailed reference page. There are numerous references on the Internet about what actually constitutes plagiarism and how anyone, not just students, can avoid being accused of misconduct in relationship to intellectual property. University of York lists five forms of academic misconduct as follows: cheat i.e. fail to comply with the rules governing examinations e.g. by making arrangements to have unauthorised access to information; collude i.e. assist another candidate to gain an advantage by unfair means, or receive such assistance; fabricate i.e. mislead the examiners by presenting work for assessment in a way which intentionally or recklessly suggests that factual information has been collected which has not in fact been collected, or falsifies factual information; personate i.e. act, appear, or produce work on behalf of another candidate in order to deceive the examiners, or solicit another individual to act, appear or produce work on their own behalf; plagiarise i.e. incorporate within their work without appropriate acknowledgement material derived from the work (published or unpublished) of another. (Retrieved 12/30/2005, from http://www.york.ac.uk). Sheffield Hallam University offers a list in their regulations and codes of what constitutes cheating, for instance, plagiarism, where someone takes credit for another's work; complete plagiarism, the substantial and unauthorized use of work (copying papers, computer programmes, designs, experiment results, music, text from website) without acknowledgement of the source; partial plagiarism, the inclusion of sections from another person's work which has not been referenced, as well as summarizing by changing a few words or altering the order of a presentation, without acknowledgement; self plagiarism or duplication, which is resubmitting a piece of work without permission; and, finally, collusion, where a student works with others and takes full credit for the work. (Retrieved 12/30/2005, from http://students.shu.ac.uk/rightsrules.) The University of Strathclyde in Glasgow suggests basic methods of preventing academic misconduct by clarifying meaning of academic misconduct, by academic penalty, by requesting a formal declaration for each piece of work, and requesting submission of notes, rough work and early drafts with final submission. In studying and/or preventing academic misconduct, the electronic revolution that has marked the 21st century must be considered. Not only are an inordinate number of essay mills available on the Internet, programs created to detect plagiarism are not always successful. For every method of detection, someone determined to cut, paste or copy will find a way to negate it. The amount of material available on the Internet is so great that a student or business person who lacks decent principles is going to take the chance to behave in a less than ethical manner, believing he or she will not be found out. It is also possible for someone to plagiarise without recognizing the misconduct simply because they're on deadline and need to hand in an assignment within a limited amount of time. Annotated References Andrew, Theo. (9/24/2004) "Intellectual Property and Electronic Theses: 2. Copyright," [Electronic version] JISC Legal. Retrieved 12/26/2005. This article discusses and describes intellectual property rights (IPR), and in this particular section, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 as a law that protects a British thesis. Bone, Alison (University of Brighton). (no date) "Plagiarism: A Guide for Law Lecturers," Retrieved 12/30/2005, from http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/resources/tms/plagiarism. Bone offers basic information on plagiarism as well as a series of exercises intended to discover how much students know about what constitutes plagiarism. She makes the statement that "law staff sees ideas as property, which, if taken without acknowledgement, amounts to theft." Brown, Andrew. (11/19/2005) "Owning Ideas," The Guardian. [Electronic version] Retrieved 12/26/2005, from http://www.guardian.co.uk. Brown discusses the growing need for ownership of ideas as the Internet continues to make ideas into properties that require protection. Examples are available, such as patenting on-click shopping or the patenting of drugs. He also talks about copying CDs on a personal iPod and the fact that it is illegal in the United States. He further questions a Norwegian teenager being threatened with jail and said to be providing tools to steal intellectual property "when [the boy] writes a clever programme to let him watch DVDs on his own computer." Business Link: (2005) Protecting Your Intellectual Property. Retrieved 12/28/2005, from http://www.businesslink.gov.uk. This site offers descriptions of every type of intellectual property discussed in this paper. Once on site, the links are as follows: Exploit your ideas Read More