What Is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property... now there's a real 90's deal. Copyrights, trade marks, patents, have been around for a long while, and are generally understood by most people. However, those legalities didn't encompass concepts, in need of protection, since the exploration of the virtual world, commenced.

When the Internet was born, the transmission of ideas exploded. All of a sudden, there was a whole new realm of possibilities to be explored. Idea guys were suddenly in high demand, and the money began to flow.

In the spirit of competition, we discovered a need to protect ideas, thought processes, and credit card numbers. So, the government stepped in and wrote some laws, to protect what is in your head.

Intellectual Property is defined as:

n.

"A product of the intellect, that has commercial value, including copyrighted property such as, literary or artisic works, and ideational property, such as patenets, appellations of origins, business methods, and industrial processes."

"Intangible property that is the result of creativity (such as, patents, trademarks, or copyrights)."

"The ownership of ideas and control over the tangible, or virtual representations of those ideas..."

Concept theft is a problem that is not really talked about much, but it does exist. Remember when Bill Gates introduced Windows, and Steve Jobs accused him of ripping off Apple?

With the Internet representing endless possibilities for creativity, it would only stand to reason, that cases of idea stealing should rise, as competition for dominating market shares increases.

If you've got marketable ideas, you'd better know your rights and responsibilities. If you don't, you'll kick yourself when someone steals your million dollar idea out from under you. You need to be legally protected and aware in cyberspace, just as you must in the real world. There are people out there, that would rather steal your idea than come up with something original, on their own.

If your desire to succeed brings you to the consideration of wire-tapping someone else's brain waves, and making off with their ideas, you should catch up on your reading a bit. The government has taken this matter to heart, and legislated it pretty intensely. You should know your rights as an Internet Intellectual, and the penalties for idea stealing.

"The Economic Espionage Act of 1996 ("EEA") contains two separate provisions that criminalize the theft or misappropriation of trade secrets. The first provision, codified at 18 U.S.C.