What is Intellectual property?

The Intellectual Property is a term referred to the intellectual activity as, for example, the inventions, logos, literary articles The Intellectual Property laws protect any original work. It is divided into two different classifications: Industrial Property and Copyright. Regarding the Industrial Property field trade-marks (words, designs or a combination of these that distinguish your goods or services from others), logos, names, patents, industrial designs and many more creations of the mind are protected by the Intellectual Property laws and regulations. On the other hand, the Copyright watches over the artistic and literary works, as poems, theatre plays, paintings, sculptures, musical works, architectural designs etc. These rights are applied by the artists, performers and producers about their creations. Inscribing an own creation in the Intellectual Property Register has many advantages since it is a certificated proof of the existence of the rights that this registration implies. Some of the benefits of having registered an invention are subventions for the patents, trade-marks, copyrights, industrial designs and the integrated circuit topographies (refers to the three-dimensional configuration of the electronic circuits used in microchips and semiconductor chips). Intellectual property establishes a right and identifies ownership of intellectual creativity. This ownership is the only one who could profit from the creative original idea. Intellectual property encourages the competitivity between enterprises and increases the confidence of the consumers. What is Copyright? According to the Australian governments webpage copyright is a type of property that is founded on a person's creative skill and labour. It is designed to prevent the unauthorised use by others of a work, that is, the original form in which an idea or information has been expressed by the creator. Copyright is not a tangible thing. It is made up of a bundle of exclusive economic rights to do certain acts with an original work or other copyright subject-matter. These rights include the right to copy, publish, communicate (e.g. broadcast, make available online) and publicly perform the copyright material. A clear distinction exists between the copyright in a work and the ownership of the physical article in which the work exists. For example, an author may own the copyright in the text in a book even though the physical copy of the book will be owned by the person who purchases it. Similarly, the purchaser of an original painting does not have the right to make copies of it without the permission of the owner of copyright: the right of reproduction remains with the copyright owner who is generally the artist.

What are the two main authors rights? Two main rights can be distinguished: the property rights and the moral rights on their work. The property rights (or sometimes called economic rights) are those that ensure

that the owner receives a profit from the publication of the intellectual work. Many countries put a limit on the time a single person can hold economic rights on an specific work, (70 years, in Europe and USA), and these can only be transferred via legal testament. The other type of author rights are the moral rights. It is agreed that works of art can be the expression of the authors personality, feelings and thoughts, and therefore considered to be personal to the author. This right (not present in every country) defends the right of the author to be able to decide whether his or her piece of work should be changed or modified in any way. Which are the national laws that regulate Intellectual property? The main national law that regulates intellectual property in Spain is the Intellectual Property Law approved in November 11, 1987. The articles 1 and 2 of this law says that Intellectual property consists of personal rights and property, which they attribute to the author, by the mere fact of its creation, the full layout and exclusive right to exploit the work without further limitations than those established in the law. If the rights in a work are a collaboration of several authors, correspond to all. The main limitations to the exclusive rights of exploitation are the right to the private copyng and home playing, right to receibe and to impart information and the use for education and research. Authors can request the registration of rights in the Intellectual Property Registry, through the Ministry of Culture; these rights are valid in Spain. In addition, there are other two laws that regulate Intellectual property: The Law Society Services and Electronic Commerce Information and the Law to Promote the Information Society. In Spain, there are many associations to preserve the Intellectual property rights. The main institution in Spain is SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores). International Laws on Intellectual Property Copyright its not regulated by laws that apply at an international level and its legislation its different in each country. However, there are two international treats that protect original creative Works: the Buenos Aires Convention and the Berne Convention. The Buenos Aires Convention was signed by most of North and South America countries on 1910 at Buenos Aires, Argentina. One of the most important articles of the convention is the one that states that copyright is recognized if the work carries any manifestation that shows the reservation of the property. Usually this was applied using the phrase: All rights reserved. It also instituted that the lenght of the creative work was whichever was shorter, regardless of which lenght was longer the source countrys or the protecting one. This is known as the rule of the shorter term. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was first signed on 1886 at Berne, Switzerland. Since then, it has been revised several times, the last one on 1979. 164 countries sign the agreement. The Berne Convention has three basic principals: the original works have the same protection in every contracting country as they have in their original country, that protection doesnt have to be

conditioned by the fulfillment of any formality and its independent of the existence of a corresponding protection on the works original country.