Intellectual rights allow creators to keep, sell, or assign their intellectual property, including books, paintings, logos, and music. Science and industry are protected by patents, trademarks, and design registrations, while the arts are protected by copyright. Intellectual rights can be sold, transferred, or bequeathed. Enforcement can be difficult, especially with digital content. National and global organizations oversee protection, including the United States Copyright Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization. WIPO encourages creativity and development globally.
Intellectual rights are the right of a creator to keep, sell or assign all or part of his intellectual property. This designation typically includes any mentally produced work, such as books, paintings, company logos, and music recordings. A variety of types of rights apply to any given work.
The protection afforded by intellectual rights is generally divided into two areas: science and industry, and art. Intellectual rights associated with science and industry are generally referred to as patents, trademarks and design registrations. Within the arts, intellectual rights are generally protected by copyright.
In many large corporations or government departments, the organization forecloses intellectual rights to a mentally produced work. The individual often signs an agreement prohibiting the creator from owning the rights to his creation while employed by the organization. Almost everything within the arts created by the human mind typically belongs to that creator, or to anyone to whom the creator assigns those rights. Protected artistic endeavors range from spoken word to mime routines to magazine articles to oil paintings.
The owner of intellectual property rights to a creative work can sell, transfer or bequeath all rights to his work. Many print publications only buy the first rights to an article, for example, which means the author can sell the reprint rights to another publication at a later date. A film producer can sell film distribution rights to different distribution companies located in different countries. A comedian may allow a premium channel to air his routine, but forbid a network from doing so. A music group may sell recording rights to one entity, while selling merchandise rights to another.
Intellectual rights include the protection of a creator’s good name and the integrity and uniqueness of intellectual property. These rights are often difficult to enforce, especially when the intellectual capital is in easily duplicable formats, such as digital music, video and web content. Intellectual rights owners are sometimes required to file a protest under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
National and global organizations oversee the registration and protection of intellectual property, although in many areas traditional cultures are not yet protected. Most countries have specific departments to oversee the protection of intellectual capital rights, such as the United States Copyright Office. The World Intellectual Property Organization, known as WIPO, is an agency of the United Nations. In general, WIPO encourages creativity on a global scale, promoting the development of scientific and industrial ideas, artistic works and inventions.
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