This week’s reading is based on the topic we learned in class which is Intellectual Property. First of all, what is Intellectual Property? It is defined that Intellectual Property is a creation and innovation of the mind such as inventions of artistic works, symbols, designs, images and etc. Usually these set of categories are widely recognized by the public. Of course, every person has the greed for themselves and therefore, they will find ways to protect the things that belong to them. This is where the corresponding fields of law applied here that granted the owners a certain exclusive rights to their work. The common and most well known types of Intellectual property rights we were taught in class were copyrights, trademarks, and patents.
Copyright is an exclusive of rights which granted to the owner of their work for a particular period of time to copy and distribute the work. After the time is over, it will become a “public domain” which means that the work is now belongs to the public and everyone has the right to use or recreate the content. However, there’s a question that I have been wondering. What if the owner of the work wants to pass the copyright rights to their family or relatives? How can that be done? Come to think about it, it is not really fair for the content to be a “public domain” for others to use it freely after the period is over for their own commercial usage purposes. Imagine it was your own piece of work, after much effort and sweat you have put in it, and in the end, it falls into random peoples’ hands and they reuse it freely. The least you could have wanted or asked for is to give you the copyright rights by passing it down to your family members or the person as you wish. Personally I believe there are always the pros and cons in everything. I can’t imagine if we are living in word without copyright laws as well. By knowing that the creation of an individual of their work will not be protected, people are not willing to come out with new ideas and works anymore.
The next type of protection is trademarks. Trademarks differs itself from copyright laws. Trademark is defined as a distinctive sign or logo used by an individual or organizations which it represents the originate from a unique source and distinguish of their product and services from others within the same market. As we all know, if you want to open a franchise of a well known brand, you have to buy the franchise as the right to use of their logo, recipe and etc. Personally I know a case from China that there's a fake Starbucks chain outlets which use the exact Starbuck’s logo, but with a completely different yet sounded familiar name. Many consumers got fall for the scam because they thought it’s THE Starbucks due to the logo, but they neglected the name. Therefore, the fake Starbucks got sued. However, because of this incident, Starbucks value and credibility has also gradually dropped unexpectedly.
Carry on the last protection taught in class is patented rights. It refers to the rights to protect an exclusive invention of an individual for a limited period of time. Such inventions are usually technological and scientifically based. After the limited period of time is over, individuals and organizations will have the right to build or create similar technologies of the similar invention. For example, let’s say an organization who is involved in the anti-aging industry. They are the first to found out and create the formula to stop the genes from aging. Therefore, after they have patented their technology of the invention, if any other organizations among the same industry come out with the same formula that against the patent law and legal actions can be taken by the patented owners.
In conclusion, it came to my attention that with all these copyright laws, it sets a limitation for us to retrieve the range of information. But then again, personally I believe as long as we take and use the works of others for purely academic and personal purposes and not for commercial reasons, it should be just fine and for that, we are far away from breaking the copyright laws.
Copyright is an exclusive of rights which granted to the owner of their work for a particular period of time to copy and distribute the work. After the time is over, it will become a “public domain” which means that the work is now belongs to the public and everyone has the right to use or recreate the content. However, there’s a question that I have been wondering. What if the owner of the work wants to pass the copyright rights to their family or relatives? How can that be done? Come to think about it, it is not really fair for the content to be a “public domain” for others to use it freely after the period is over for their own commercial usage purposes. Imagine it was your own piece of work, after much effort and sweat you have put in it, and in the end, it falls into random peoples’ hands and they reuse it freely. The least you could have wanted or asked for is to give you the copyright rights by passing it down to your family members or the person as you wish. Personally I believe there are always the pros and cons in everything. I can’t imagine if we are living in word without copyright laws as well. By knowing that the creation of an individual of their work will not be protected, people are not willing to come out with new ideas and works anymore.
The next type of protection is trademarks. Trademarks differs itself from copyright laws. Trademark is defined as a distinctive sign or logo used by an individual or organizations which it represents the originate from a unique source and distinguish of their product and services from others within the same market. As we all know, if you want to open a franchise of a well known brand, you have to buy the franchise as the right to use of their logo, recipe and etc. Personally I know a case from China that there's a fake Starbucks chain outlets which use the exact Starbuck’s logo, but with a completely different yet sounded familiar name. Many consumers got fall for the scam because they thought it’s THE Starbucks due to the logo, but they neglected the name. Therefore, the fake Starbucks got sued. However, because of this incident, Starbucks value and credibility has also gradually dropped unexpectedly.
Carry on the last protection taught in class is patented rights. It refers to the rights to protect an exclusive invention of an individual for a limited period of time. Such inventions are usually technological and scientifically based. After the limited period of time is over, individuals and organizations will have the right to build or create similar technologies of the similar invention. For example, let’s say an organization who is involved in the anti-aging industry. They are the first to found out and create the formula to stop the genes from aging. Therefore, after they have patented their technology of the invention, if any other organizations among the same industry come out with the same formula that against the patent law and legal actions can be taken by the patented owners.
In conclusion, it came to my attention that with all these copyright laws, it sets a limitation for us to retrieve the range of information. But then again, personally I believe as long as we take and use the works of others for purely academic and personal purposes and not for commercial reasons, it should be just fine and for that, we are far away from breaking the copyright laws.
