The history of the term Intellectual property and the origin and development of thought associated with it dates backs to several centuries. The term Intellectual property was put into international arena and legal framework in 1967 with the establishment of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The first ever reference of the thought appears in the writing of French author Benjamin Constant published in 1818. In the legal context, the term Intellectual property appeared in a USA court ruling in 1845. The origin of concept is found in ancient Jewish law
Reference: http://wikipedia.org
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Origin and Development of Intellectual Property Thought
Friday, March 6, 2009
The Importance of Intellectual Property
The intellectual contribution of employees and citizens is the life-giving element of any human based organization- be it a government department or profit-making company, The knowledge worker today applies his “intellect” faculty in his work and brings about “new” results in the forms of products and services into market. This phenomenon is generally known as innovation. “Intellect” is one of the factor of production in this knowledge age.
However, innovation does not happen on its own. It needs fertile ground to happen. Innovation needs encouragement to produce something valuable and useful. In order to participate in this process – people – innovators need guarantee that fruits of his innovation get him due credit and reasonable rewards. The innovator wishes to get mileage out of his every useful innovation. This is not possible unless he “owns” his innovative creations. In other words companies in particular and society in general must establish ways and means to accord “property” status to creations of innovation. Intellectual property is an umbrella term used to indicate and cover all “ownable” entities created by the application of intellect. These entities could be concepts, business methods, software, designs and algorithms to name a few.
It is not first time in human history that we have encountered this kind of defining a “new” property. The agrarian age demanded ownerships to land holdings. The industrial age demanded ownership to mechanical inventions. For instance the inventor of steam engine, James Watt owned his invention by the way of obtaining a patent for it. The printing press created authors and authorship is owned and exercised by “copyrights”. However in the past intellectual work was a fringe phenomenon participated by few and succeeded still less.
With the advent of connected world, global flow of thoughts and experience and knowledge economy and world becoming a level field or flat, the portion of population participating in “knowledge works” is increasing. To encourage their continued participation and award those who make contribution is becoming a critical social, legal and business necessity. Intellectual property is a hot issue and protecting its owners is a new challenge in contemporary times
However, innovation does not happen on its own. It needs fertile ground to happen. Innovation needs encouragement to produce something valuable and useful. In order to participate in this process – people – innovators need guarantee that fruits of his innovation get him due credit and reasonable rewards. The innovator wishes to get mileage out of his every useful innovation. This is not possible unless he “owns” his innovative creations. In other words companies in particular and society in general must establish ways and means to accord “property” status to creations of innovation. Intellectual property is an umbrella term used to indicate and cover all “ownable” entities created by the application of intellect. These entities could be concepts, business methods, software, designs and algorithms to name a few.
It is not first time in human history that we have encountered this kind of defining a “new” property. The agrarian age demanded ownerships to land holdings. The industrial age demanded ownership to mechanical inventions. For instance the inventor of steam engine, James Watt owned his invention by the way of obtaining a patent for it. The printing press created authors and authorship is owned and exercised by “copyrights”. However in the past intellectual work was a fringe phenomenon participated by few and succeeded still less.
With the advent of connected world, global flow of thoughts and experience and knowledge economy and world becoming a level field or flat, the portion of population participating in “knowledge works” is increasing. To encourage their continued participation and award those who make contribution is becoming a critical social, legal and business necessity. Intellectual property is a hot issue and protecting its owners is a new challenge in contemporary times
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)