Business Law - Introduction to Intellectual Property

Hey everyone, welcome to this lecture on intellectual property. Today we're going to be diving into intellectual property rights and explore some of the common types of intellectual property that exist to protect both creative works and innovative ideas. So let's get started. To get us started, let's talk about what intellectual property is.

So intellectual property refers to legal rights that are granted to either individuals or maybe entities for their creative and intellectual works. Now these rights provide exclusive control and protection over the use and exploitation of these creations, basically ensuring that creators and innovators are rewarded for their efforts. Intellectual property essentially serves as an incentive for innovation, helps to encourage creativity as well as foster economic growth because it allows individuals the opportunity to protect those things that they create and then potentially can financially benefit from. Now one of the more well-known types of intellectual property is what's called a copyright.

Now copyrights protect original works of authorship including things like books, music, films, paintings, and even computer software. A real-life example of copyright protection is one of my favorite books, which is the Lord of the Rings series. Now the owner of that particular copyright has the ability to reproduce that work, distribute that work as well as financially benefit from the sale of those particular books and anything related to that particular creation. So offshoots including movies and TV spin-offs and all other sorts of things are wrapped up in terms of that copyright.

Now another common form of intellectual property is what's known as a trademark. Now trademarks are extremely important and represent distinctive signs, logos, names, or even phrases that identify and distinguish goods or services. One of the important characteristics of a trademark is that is used in a way to distinguish that company's goods or services from others that are on the market. As a result, somebody using a similar mark would thus be confusing the marketplace and potentially benefiting from the brand that one company has created.

The great example of a trademark is the iconic golden arches of McDonald's or the Nike swoosh that was created in the 1970s. These particular symbols are registered trademarks and they help signify the brand and help consumers identify these particular products from others that exist in the market. In addition to trademarks, we have what we call trade dress, which refers to the overall visual appearance and packaging of a product. Now one of the most common examples of this is the Coca-Cola bottle shape.

The unique contour and design of the bottle actually serves as a distinctive trade dress instantly associating it with the Coca-Cola brand. The next type of intellectual property that we commonly see are what are known as patents. Now patents protect inventions and grant exclusive rights to the inventor for a limited period of time ranging anywhere from 14 to 20 years depending upon the type of patent. There are various types of patents including design, utility, as well as plant patents which we're not necessarily going to get into, but a common general type of patent would be like for a smartphone, for example.

So the iPhone, which of course was developed by Apple, holds numerous patents covering its innovative features and different technologies. And these particular patents give Apple the exclusive right to make use and sell the iPhone using these sorts of designs. And anyone else who was attempting to utilize those designs would have to pay or negotiate essentially a licensing fee with Apple to be able to use that particular invention. The last type of intellectual property we're going to discuss are what are known as trade secrets.

Now trade secrets are extremely valuable and represent valuable confidential information that provides a competitive advantage for the individual or the entity that holds that trade secret. Now trade secrets are really interesting because unlike other forms of intellectual property, the way that you protect a trade secret isn't by registering it because that inherently makes it not a secret but is rather protecting it in some way. Now an excellent example of this is the recipe for Coca-Cola. So the exact formula for Coca-Cola is closely guarded and it is a trade secret and it is something that gives Coca-Cola a unique selling point in order to help maintain its dominance.

So as a way to prevent others from getting access to the full recipe, Coca-Cola may produce elements of the product in different locations and then truck those into a central location to where they can be combined. So not any one person inherently understands the entire recipe which of course helps it to remain a secret. As we wrap up this video, I want to emphasize that intellectual property really encompasses a range of rights that help to safeguard creative works as well as innovative ideas. And the reason that they exist is an opportunity to provide an incentive for individuals to take risks and then be rewarded potentially financially for taking those risks, for making those investments and for creating those creative works.

Those in the business community, it's important to understand and respect intellectual property rights not only as a way to protect creators as well as innovators but also fostering a vibrant and innovative society and ultimately as well, infringing on others intellectual property rights opens the door to potential litigation. Thank you for joining for this lecture, I hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you next time.