Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property applies to patents, copyrights, trademarks and related interests.

Copyright Law is part of Intellectual Property. Intellectual Property usually refers to Trademarks, ™, Registered Names, Patents, ®. The designer of a design, the person who created it, the first owner of the design is the designer, or if they are employed, their employer. This operation of the law may be readily changed by a written, rather than an oral contract. An exception to the rule is where the design has been created in 'pursuance of a commission'. In that case, that person is the first owner of the design. A condition precedent for a commission to exist is that a contract must have been in place prior to the creation of the design. Generally speaking, the contract must be for value, and not gratuitous.

Multimedia products require a knowledge of the four major forms of intellectual property as well as the laws governing rights of publicity, defamation and libel.
There are four major intellectual property laws in the United States that are important for multimedia developers:
Copyright law, which protects original "works of authorship."
Patent law, which protects new, useful, and "nonobvious" inventions and processes.
Trademark law, which protects words, names, and symbols used by manufacturers and businesses to identify their goods and services.
Trade secret law, which protects valuable information not generally known that has been kept secret by its owner.