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- Illegally Downloading Music: Singing the Blues
- Healing Broken Patent Laws
- Trading on Your Intellect
Read WIPO's "Learn from the Past, Create the Future" (download the pdf) that explains how to proceed from ideas, to IP protection, to commercialization of inventions for young people.
Trade Terms
Copyright is a legal term describing rights given to creators for their literary and artistic works.
A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem.
A trademark is a distinctive sign which identifies certain goods or services as those produced or provided by a specific person or enterprise. Its origin dates back to ancient times, when craftsmen reproduced their signatures, or marks, on their artistic or utilitarian products. Over the years these marks evolved into the current system of trademark registration and protection.
A geographical indication is a sign used on goods that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that place of origin. Geographical indications may be used for a wide variety of agricultural products, such as Tuscany for olive oil, which is protected in Italy by Law No. 169 of February 5, 1992.
An industrial design is the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article. The design may consist of three-dimensional features, such as the shape or surface of an article, or of two-dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or color.
Trading on Your Intellect
Intellectual property are creations or inventions—anything from drawings and songs to complicated computer software and other inventive technology and concepts. Since these ideas originated in the mind of a single person or group of people, they are considered to be their property.
These works of the human spirit, as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) calls them, are collectively known as intellectual property. They expand the bounds of science and technology and enrich the world of the arts.
More intellectual property works are being produced today than ever before. Just think about music, films, computer programs and games, and other technological innovations used in medicine and other fields.
Trading Ideas, Creations and Inventions
Intellectual property accounts for a large portion of international trade today. And its share will only continue to grow.
"Most of the value of new medicines and other high technology products lies in the amount of invention, innovation, research, design and testing involved," according to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Trade is important. It stimulates a country's development and economic growth.
Everything gets traded: raw materials (copper, sugar, etc.), manufactured goods (clothes, appliances and cars), and even creations and inventions, known as intellectual property.
Creating and selling intellectual property can significantly help a country's economic growth, says Kamil Idris, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
The richest countries in the world tend to produce and sell most intellectual property products. (Think about music, movies, computers, etc.) Intellectual property has helped these countries' economies grow even more.
The poorest countries in the world tend to sell raw products and commodities (agricultural products and minerals).
According to a recent World Bank report, the countries that became richer over the last 30 years were those that mostly export intellectual property. Their incomes grew faster. The incomes of poor countries that mostly export raw materials didn't grow at all.
From the beginning to the end of the 20th century, economists calculated the global trade in commodities—or raw materials—shrank from about 70% of world trade to about 20%. One reason for this is because because raw materials (commodities) are cheaper than manufactured goods.
Traditional Crafts Protected
WIPO identifies traditional knowledge as traditional cultural expressions, which have been passed down orally from generation to generation, such as stories, music, dance, art and crafts, as well as use of traditional agricultural, medical and technical knowledge.
Indian saris and Ghanaian kente cloths are examples of traditional crafts that can be protected under intellectual property laws. These beautiful cloths are typical of the local communities that weave them and qualify as traditional knowledge. People worldwide are interested in buying such cloths.
For example, buying copper is cheaper than buying copper-made products.
On the other hand, when you buy a book, you're not only paying for the paper and ink, but for the writer's idea and talent.
Commodities make up 20% of world trade today. The other 80% is taken by manufactured goods and intellectual property.
In other words, poor countries which only export commodities must find a way to start producing and exporting more manufactured goods and intellectual property in order to increase growth in their economies and improve their lives.
While developing new technological innovations requires highly skilled specialists that poor countries may not have, these countries could greatly benefit if they could protect traditional knowledge as intellectual property and trade it.
According to a UN estimate mentioned in the book "Poor People's Knowledge: Promoting Intellectual Property in Developing Countries," developing countries lose about US$5 billion each year in royalties from unathorized use of traditional knowledge.
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