Hello!
Ah, finally I've gotten around to doing this!
But before posting, some background material
Background material?!
Er, well, yes.
[Click blue ellipsis for more!]
Hope it's not too much of a mood-killer, but since a significant fraction of my blogging will be on intellectual property issues, and this blog is geared at friends with widely varying degrees of legal knowledge, a little background information might be helpful, at least as a quick reference.
Some Whatness
Quoth Wikipedia:
Intellectual property is a form of legal entitlement which allows its holder to control the use of certain intangible ideas and expressions
Some Usual Suspects
Patents cover inventions
Copyright covers works of expression (ie, books, music, film...)
Trademarks are distinctive signs for brand identification.
Some Background Theory
The structure of intellectual property systems varies from country to country, but the US Constitution exemplifies the basic premise:
The Congress shall have Power... to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries
The phrase "limited Times" is pretty key here, and signifies that the promotion of progress bit isn't just throwaway preamble-- rather, it's the mission statement of the whole system: IP was conceived as an incentive mechanism to facilitate progress in certain sectors of society. Rights are conferred to inventors as a means to achieving this end, but are not the primary end in and of themselves.
This is an important premise to point out early on, since it can be all too easily overlooked in the context of the entire ownership system, which tends to emphasize the default primacy of individual rights over other considerations.
Doctors Without Borders has a nice quick primer on the basics of patent rights and issues related to drug patents (a topic central to my current work) here.
Some Patently Absurd Nonsense
Your reward for making it this far...
Some real US patents that shows the lighter side
of what happens when an IP system gets out of whack...
Method of Exercising a Cat
Apparatus for Simulating a "high-five"
Greenhouse helmet
Pneumatic Shoe-Lacing Apparatus
All-In-One Bird-Trap-Cat-Feeder
But before posting, some background material
Background material?!
Er, well, yes.
[Click blue ellipsis for more!]
Hope it's not too much of a mood-killer, but since a significant fraction of my blogging will be on intellectual property issues, and this blog is geared at friends with widely varying degrees of legal knowledge, a little background information might be helpful, at least as a quick reference.
Some Whatness
Quoth Wikipedia:
Intellectual property is a form of legal entitlement which allows its holder to control the use of certain intangible ideas and expressions
Some Usual Suspects
Patents cover inventions
Copyright covers works of expression (ie, books, music, film...)
Trademarks are distinctive signs for brand identification.
Some Background Theory
The structure of intellectual property systems varies from country to country, but the US Constitution exemplifies the basic premise:
The Congress shall have Power... to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries
The phrase "limited Times" is pretty key here, and signifies that the promotion of progress bit isn't just throwaway preamble-- rather, it's the mission statement of the whole system: IP was conceived as an incentive mechanism to facilitate progress in certain sectors of society. Rights are conferred to inventors as a means to achieving this end, but are not the primary end in and of themselves.
This is an important premise to point out early on, since it can be all too easily overlooked in the context of the entire ownership system, which tends to emphasize the default primacy of individual rights over other considerations.
Doctors Without Borders has a nice quick primer on the basics of patent rights and issues related to drug patents (a topic central to my current work) here.
Some Patently Absurd Nonsense
Your reward for making it this far...
Some real US patents that shows the lighter side
of what happens when an IP system gets out of whack...
Method of Exercising a Cat
Apparatus for Simulating a "high-five"
Greenhouse helmet
Pneumatic Shoe-Lacing Apparatus
All-In-One Bird-Trap-Cat-Feeder
posted by L'el at 1:04 PM
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