Business Law and Intellectual Property
Until a few years ago intellectual property rights within the context of business law was a well understood and rock steady area of practice. Intellectual property law can protect product and process inventions including patents, copyrights, and trade secrets. These laws also protect things like names and styles under which a business and its products are recognized in the marketplace including service and trademarks. Intellectual property laws are also designed to safeguard vital but non-technological information about businesses and their operations, such as customers, suppliers, plans, and finances (Chiappetta, 1997). With the advent of digital technology, allowing for the virtually free transfer of ideas and products in a matter of minutes, the protections found under intellectual property laws are called into question. At least a reinterpretation of what constitutes intellectual property and how to protect it is necessary.
An article produced under the auspices of Questel-Orbit, a member of the France Telecom Group, frames the issues precisely: "If our property can be infinitely reproduced and instantaneously distributed all over the planet without cost, without our knowledge, without its even leaving our possession, how can we protect it" (Barlow, 1994)?
Formerly it was generally assumed that value was based on scarcity, as it is with regard to physical objects. Intellectual property law has been constructed to protect physical objects. Business law in this regard runs precisely contrary to the nature of information, which in many cases increases in value with distribution. Given that new technologies are a growing source of economic wealth, it is necessary to apply workable intellectual property laws to real world situations.
Business Issues and Intellectual Property
In general, wealth from trade in intellectual property is generated in two ways. The first way i...