Importance of Intellectual Property Rights

Ethics and Intellectual Property

Introduction

Intellectual property, also known as IP, is an intangible asset that is the product of human creativeness and is also protected by the law. It was not until the later part of the twentieth century that intellectual property laws were necessary. Our world becomes more technologically savvy every day. While technology is becoming a big part of our lives, companies that produce these intangible assets are in competition for the legal rights that are associated with them. Some of the most common types of intellectual property rights include trademarks, copyright, patents and trade secrets.

One of the most popular and profitable industry in today’s world is with the entertainment industry. There is a lot of competition with artists and can be quite difficult to become successful. One the major reasons why it is so difficult to get a record label is because the artists have the potential to become millionaires. This is one of the reasons why it is imperative for intellectual property to be protected.

Importance of Intellectual Property

While intellectual property is becoming more important, protecting the rights has become more vital as well as complicated as time goes on. An example of one of the internet’s well-known intellectual property cases is between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Napster. Napster was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America because of Napster was allowing people to share music files which resulted in thousands of people downloading music as opposed to buying CD’s or purchasing the music online.

There were a lot of ethical issues that arose within this case. Napster did not believe they broke any laws, but instead they provided...

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...e a generic component. The same product cannot be duplicated because of the patent and it is as if that product never even existed.

Conclusion

Intellectual property is very important in today’s world, especially with all of the technological advances. There must always be a proper balance between the content producers and the public good. The protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights should be used to help the promotion of technological creations in a way that is promising to a balance of obligations and rights. It is important that intellectual property rights are there to benefit the public good as well as the content producers. In the case that I had mentioned earlier with Napster, the public good was not of any issue. The major ethical issue in this case was the fact that Napster knew that they did not have any legal ownership over the music.