Beginning to Clarify

I'm really excited to start work on the final project of our Digital Civilization class. I will be working in the Intellectual Property and Creative Commons group along with Spencer Stevens, Gabriel Meyr, and Andre Benhaim. Intellectual Property is such a hot topic right now, as there are many lawsuits going on related to copyright infringement and patent violations. The goal of our group starting out is going to lay out the differences between all the intellectual property terms people get confused about, like what a copyright, trademark, registered trademark, license, patent, and trade secret is.

Intellectual property isn't any one of these, but rather the umbrella under which all of these fall. A copyright is a type of intellectual property. So is a patent. So is a trademark. Yet each one is different, and each one is governed by different laws, either on the federal or state level. Since each one is different, a copyright lawyer is not the same thing as a patent lawyer. To get along in today's digital world, especially if one wants to do business in today's digital world, understanding intellectual property and the differences between its different types is critical.

This isn't the place where all things related to intellectual property is going to be clarified, but here's a good link to get started: http://corecopyright.org/2009/12/03/copyright_ip/. Enjoy, and stay tuned :)