Intellectual Property
• Definition: Any unique product of the
human intellect that has commercial value
– Books, songs, paintings,…. Software
• An important difference between physical
property and intellectual property is there
can be only one physical property, whereas
there can be “duplicates” on intellectual
property
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Intellectual Property (IP)
• There is a tension between rewarding
inventors of IP and the public good to use it.
• Congress addressed this by granting authors
and inventors time limits on exclusivity
rights.
• In 1998, Congress passed the Copyright
Term Extension Act
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Intellectual Property
• Copyright Term Extension Act
– Previous – An author’s copyright would last
until 50 years after his/her death
– Now - An author’s copyright lasts until 70
years after his/her death
– Previous – for corporate authorship the period
was 75 years
– Now – 95 years
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Question
• How many times have you heard “Happy
Birthday to You” sung on television or the
radio?
• Clayton F. Summy Company owns the
copyright, and collects ~$2,000,000/year
for public performances
– The copyright expires in 2030!
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Protecting Intellectual Property –
Trade Secrets
• Confidential piece of intellectual
property that provides a company with
a competitive advantage
• Example – Merchandise 7X
– Formula for Coca-Cola Syrup
– Task of making syrup is divided among
different groups
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“Stealing” Intellectual Property –
Trade Secrets
• Reverse engineering is legal
– Be careful
• Hire former employees
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Protecting Intellectual Property –
Trademarks & Service Marks
• A mark identifying a service
• Sometimes a trademark becomes an
identifying word/phrase, so be careful
– Kleenex, aspirin, escalator, Xerox are all
trademarks
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Protecting Intellectual Property –
Patents
• Different from a trade secret
• A public document that allows holder
to prevent others from making, using
or selling product
– Currently set at 20 years
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Protecting Intellectual Property –
Copyrights
• Owner of copyright has 5 principal
rights
– Right to reproduce
– Right to distribute
– Right to display
– Right to perform
– Right to produce new works derived from
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Protecting Intellectual Property –
Copyright – Fair Use Doctrine
• Under some circumstances it is legal to
reproduce copyrighted material
– Best example is classroom use by an
instructor
– Four factors are considered
• What is the purpose of the use (e.g.
education is ok)
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– What is the nature of the work being used
• Non-fiction better than fiction
• Published preferred over non-published
– How much of the copyrighted work is being
used?
– How will this use affect the market for the
copyrighted work?
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Protections for Software
• First software copyrights applied for in
1964
• Copyright Act of 1976 explicitly recognizes
software as copyrightable
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Copyright
• Protects the expression of an idea, not the
idea itself
• Usually protects the object (executable)
program, not the source code
– Typically the source code of a program is a
trade secret
• Also protects the screen displays of the
program
– Especially valuable for video games
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Copyright - Violations
• Doing any of the following without
copyright holder permission is a violation
of copyright law
– Copy program onto a CD or DVD to give or
sell to someone
– Preloading a program onto the hard disk of a
computer to sell
– Distributing a program over the internet
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Open Source Software
• Open Source is a definition of how software
is to be distributed (sold)
– No restrictions preventing others from selling
or giving away the software
– Source code must be included or available
– No restrictions on modifying the source code
– No restrictions on how it’s used
– These rights apply to everyone without the need
for additional licensing agreements
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Open Source Software
• Much of what we use is actually open
source
– Perl
– GNU C++,…
– DNS (domain name service)
– Apache for file servers
• 10% of users in 1995
• 70% of users in 2003
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