What is Intellectual Property Rights-Part 1?

Photo by Anete Lusina

The challenge of explaining Intellectual Property Rights

    Any discussion on Intellectual Property rights looks complicated to most people and if you try to explain it to ordinary people some may even get good sleep while we are frothing with technical details. I am not a geek myself but having been working with geeks for long time, makes me susceptible to occasional geekiness. If a geek explains it then it will only be an effective pill for insomnia 😜. So kindly bear with me I will try to explain it in the most simplest terms while not missing the purpose of this blog.

Via Giphy

Why you need to understand it in the first place?

    So lets first understand why a common person not involved in high tech job/research/creative field needs to understand it at all especially these days. Just have a look at the video below by Dr. Vandana Shiva who tries to explain how transnational corporations who made their fortunes selling patented technology(chemical/IT/weapons) now want to push governments in all countries to provide protection for patenting on life. 

   Biopiracy Vandana Shiva

    Intellectual Property is a legal definition and not a natural right like "Right to self defense". It is a legal protection given by the governments(on payment of a fees) to individuals or companies to claim exclusive monetization rights over an idea or an intellectual output which they have created themselves or buyed exclusive commercialization rights from a creator. In case of Bio piracy they take freely from nature and modify it slightly and then sell it as their own creation.

    This means that if people want(only if they insist) they can stop their governments from allowing corporations to patent life. Since common people was blissfully ignorant and not insisting, our benevolent people leaders was in no mood to stop corporations from dictating Intellectual property/patent laws even though corporations are not a party in the democratic framework. 

via GIPHY

    The real truth is that the legal fraternity/politicians of the world do not understand the human species extinction level impact created by such greed. They are mostly from lawyer(or judicial) families or political families in case of democracies and royal families in case of kingdoms. They were brought up from childhood with one goal - Family Legacy. This mentality is also reflected by billionaires.

    The mantra of family legacy forever has been -

 "As long as there is money and supermarkets my future generations will be able to survive till eternity". 

                   - Dr. Vandana Shiva

But once you fully understand what Dr. Vandana Shiva is trying to explain any common person/politician/royalty/dictator/billionaire will understand. Only if they care to learn from past human mistakes. This requires a change in heart from every human being in this planet. 

"There is enough for everyone on earth for their needs but not enough for everyone's greed"

             -     M. K. Gandhi

  Thanks to the "Ignorance is Bliss" policy of common voters like us till now the legal definition of creative output or Intellectual output was dictated by big corporations which our benevolent people leaders wrote down in nice legal terms while the common voter was blissfully sleeping. We have the power to change, because at least 50% of what happens in our life is our own bad choices and opinions(which are being manipulated every second). These corporations are just modern day inheritors and ugly end products of human greed.

via GIPHY

     I will not be delving in to the details of bio piracy and patenting of life. Dr. Vandana Shiva is the expert in this field. So i recommend watching her videos after learning about Intellectual Property from this blog, as it will help you better understand what she is trying to tell the humanity. Maybe in some other post I may explain bio piracy, but the purpose of this blog is to make people aware of legal definition of Intellectual property and how to stop transnational corporations from owning every life form on planet earth including humans (maybe by the time people wake up we will be able to stop them from owning our clones who maybe be healthier and more obedient). The gravity of the situation is lost by complacency and false sense of security provided by family legacy.

Lets start with what is Intellectual Output or creative output?

    First lets understand from a simple beginner level understanding. When you draw a picture by your own imagination onto a piece of paper or create an artistic content in a print/audio/visual platform or do scientific/economic/technical research which results in print/digital/analog data or content of any form, this real world output from your abstract or logical analysis side of your brain is called Intellectual Output or simply put as an output of your minds intellect functioning. It has to result in a real world artifact(this means it not does occur naturally). 

 

Defining Intellectual Output

    If you copy another persons painting/data/analysis/design ditto then that's simply called plagiarism or in simple school or college kids term as copying or in legal terms copyright violation. That is certainly not beginner level explanation👎. In simpler terms any cerebral activity that leads to real world artifacts is called Intellectual Output.😌. Wow, i hope you got it. Please don't leave yet there is more boring stuff below.

via GIPHY

But what is Intellectual property?

      This is where the linguistic/academic definition of Intellectual Output/cerebral output turns into legally defined Intellectual Property. A cerebral output is projected onto some physical, real world object and somehow this becomes a new object as per legal definition.

Defining Intellectual Property-1

Defining Intellectual Property-2

 

 Who actually owns the intellectual property?

    But who owns this intellectual property? Also who can legally make copies of it?This is a tricky question of negotiation and also the fact that who else supported you to achieve this output rather that blindly the  individuals intellectual capability alone. The laws are complex and when things go to courts it all depends on either party's ability to prove their point. 

Scenario-1

    Take the example of a painter who draws the paintings on a canvas. This canvas is the platform on which the painter applies his minds intellectual ability. This was purchased from a vendor in market at some price which was agreeable to both. This results in the painter socially/morally/legally(legally since there exist no legally binding agreement with another person/company/legal entity) being the owner of the Intellectual property.  

Intellectual Property Ownership claim-1

    Legally, it is better to put it as a situation where there exists no person who currently has a legally binding claim over monetization of your Intellectual property. This means if anyone takes away your original painting then they will be arrested for stealing. But if they make copies of this original even without your permission they cannot be arrested. The painter can reserve the exclusive right to copy the original by Copyright protecting the original painting. 

Scenario - 2 

In case the painter and the canvas vendor engages in some kind of negotiation in which they put in some form of legally binding agreement in which the vendor gets a share of the sale price in percentage of this painting in exchange for the vendor agreeing to provide free/discounted rate canvas for the painter. So provider of a platform for applying your intellectual talents can now negotiate a fees with you for supporting this intellectual activity.

Intellectual Property Ownership claim-2

Defining Platform Provider

    It is the same with Audio/Visual Content in Audio/Video platforms like Radio/TV/Internet. The platform provider like radio station or recording studio in this creative/artistic field comes to a monetary agreement related to profit sharing with artist on sale of intellectual property/sale of copy(this is important point) of this intellectual property and also the right to create infinite copies of the persons Intellectual's Output if they have mutually agreed upon it. In this case you have created a legal co-owner of this Intellectual Property(IP). 

Difference between Intellectual Property and Copyright protection

     Since a painting can only be sold once it is a one time sale agreement. Also the painter and vendor can engage in long term legally binding association for example the vendor and painter comes to an agreement in which the vendor provides the painter every month with a specific number(say 10 canvas) for 5 years for free or heavily discounted price in exchange for a share of whatever painting the painter sells in the market during this 5 year period. But the vendor or platform provider has no legal right to make copies of this original content if it is Copyright protected. This is important as selling the painting without painters consent is basically stealing. 

    But anybody can copy the painting as long as the painter does not copyright the painting. This is the reason why plagiarism exists in the arts field in paintings drawn by artists who lived before the world started drafting and Implementing IP and Copyright protection Laws. But Copyrighting and IP protection in legal terms are costly and is not a free service from the governments across the world. 

    Any scientific invention or creative output protected by patent or copyright is the sole property of property owner as long as he has no legal agreement with platform owner and has copyright protected his intellectual property.

                                    Via GIPHY

    I tried to be zero geekish but please do comment if i was too geekish for you😂. I will better create a part 2 else I am not sure if you are still reading/sleeping. Also I do not claim that my understanding of Intellectual property is better than others. If I have made a mistake please do feel free to correct me in the comments column.

The problem with this topic is the border line between a simple description and geekish description of this topic is as thin as a hair.

Friends please do share your valuable comments 🙏.

You can check out more articles in the archives below -

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Sweet Dreams😂

Warning : If you are still awake and motivated please continue to Part -2, also please be aware that the definition and ownership of Intellectual property by High Tech/Research companies can be really scary and not for weak hearts. 

Sorry for few days delay here is Part-2

Intellectual Property Rights - Part 2