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IntellectualProperty is an oxymoron: the legal concept asserting that ideas can be owned. Be aware that there is no actual IntellectualProperty law; the concept is manifested in various distinct ways such as CopyRight and Patent laws. The term IntellectualProperty is often abused by MarkeTroids to conflate issues spanning multiple kinds of IntellectualProperty law in order to muddle over all-important details. SCO's Linux FUD was a particularly egregious example of the practice. The FSF dislike the term for this reason and list it as one of the words to avoid for this reason and suggest focussing on the individual aspects of law such as CopyRight and Patents instead.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation defined the term as the range of property rights accorded for the protection of creations of the mind, including

  • Literary, artistic and scientific works;
  • Performances of performing artists, sound recordings and broadcasts;
  • Inventions in all fields of human endeavour;
  • Scientific discoveries;
  • Industrial designs;
  • Trade marks, service marks and commercial names and designations;
  • Protection against unfair competition; and
  • All other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields.

IntellectualProperty rights provide their owners with the exclusive right to control what others may do with their work for a limited time. This exclusive right is supposed to be justified on the grounds that they give creators and innovators an opportunity to make a return on their investment, providing an incentive for creative or innovative activity that might not otherwise take place. There is a lot of debate currently about whether this premise is true in general, and whether it is true with the current IntellectualProperty law implementations. SoftwarePatents are a particular focus point of the arguments.

CopyLeft licenses such as the GPL are a reaction to the growing trend to claim ownership to ideas. While they rely on IntellectualProperty law such as CopyRight to be effective, they essentially use the law against itself.

See also:


Part of CategoryLegalese