World Intellectual Property Organization (2014) defined intellectual property as “creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce. Intellectual property consists of three main pillars that is regulated by law; (1) patents, (2) copyright and (3) trademarks.

(1) A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention. It can refer to a product or process that provides a technical solution to a problem.

(2) Copyright refers to the rights that authors/ creators have over their literary or artistic works which may include books, musics, paintings, films and so on.

(3) Trademark is a distinctive sign of a brand/ company that distinguishes it from other brands/ companies.

Prior to the establishment of World Intellectual Property Organization in 1967, Lessig (2005) maintains that the world lives in a free culture whereby the public and private domains are in balance. In a free culture, Lessig (2005) argues that the public domain is lawyer-free and copyright-free whereas in the private domain, copyrights are solely commercial.

However, with the advent of the growing digital technologies and the proliferation of the Internet, creative work are being exploited and circulated illegally without the consent of the authors/ creators leading to the contemporary issue of piracy. The Internet has made it very easy for people to leak the creative works of others online such as music are leaked on the Internet prior to the official release and movies are easily available for streaming and downloads on various websites (Lessig 2005).

In order to curb the issue of piracy, the World Intellectual Property Organization developed Intellectual Property Rights to protect the interests of authors/ creators. Lessig (2004) argues that the development of Intellectual Property Rights have replaced free culture with permission culture whereby all content is now copyrighted. Now, the freedom to use ideas/ inventions are now subjected to the permission from the authors/ creators. This has been referred to as iFeudalism whereby the authors/ creators have total control on who can use their work and how their work can be used if permitted.

Since the Intellectual Property Rights grant the authors/ creators sole entitlement of their creative works, some scholars have argued that intellectual property gives authors/ creators a monopoly in their respective industry which is contrary to the ideology of free culture – free flow of information. Companies on the other hand, argued that “a world without Intellectual Property would be a world without new ideas” (Boldrin & Levine 2007).

Now, scholars are lobbying to restore the balance between the public and private domain, that is to provide sufficient incentives for the authors/ creators yet ensuring the freedom for others to use the ideas/ inventions (Boldrin & Levine 2007).

References:

Boldrin, M & Levine, DK 2007, ‘Chapter 1: Introduction’, in Against Intellectual Monopoly, Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom, pp1-15, accessed 10/9/2014, http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/papers/anew01.pdf

Lessig, L 2005, ‘The Public Domain’, Foreign Policy, no.150, accessed 10/9/2014, http://ezproxy.uow.edu.au/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/docview/224035506?accountid=15112

Lessig, L 2004, ‘Chapter 1: Creators’, in Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Strangle Creativity, Penguin, New York, pp21-30, accessed 10/9/2014, http://www.authorama.com/free-culture-4.html

World Intellectual Property Organization 2014, What is Intellectual Property, accessed 10/9/2014, http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/