1. Professional Engineering Practice
Intellectual Property
Image credit: PCStuff 03:50, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

2. Intellectual property
What is intellectual property? Things like
copyrighted property such as literary or artistic works,
patents, business methods, and industrial processes.
trademarks.
Intangible thinks such as the ownership of ideas and control over the tangible or virtual representation of those ideas.
Another person's intellectual property may be allowed to be used with or without royalty payments or permission, but should always include proper credit to the source.

3. Intellectual property
Intellectual property rights are granted by society to producers of novel or original work in the arts or sciences.
There are various laws making up intellectual property:
copyrights,
patents,
industrial designs,
semiconductor chips,
plant varieties,
trademarks,
trade secrets and
confidential information.

4. Copyright (taken from previous links)
The right to copy
Only works that are original and fixed are protected by copyright.
A work is considered “original” when
it is the product of the author’s own skill, judgment and creativity,
has not been copied and
demonstrates more than a trivial, mechanical level of skill and judgment.
A work is “fixed” when it is produced onto any media, like paper or within a digital file.

5. Copyright Copyright law covers:
original literary, scientific, dramatic, musical and artistic work in written or some recorded form (e.g., tape or diskette).
books, articles, letters, poems, essays, theses, translations, lectures, computer programs, maps, charts, plans, art (paintings, drawings, sketches, architecture, sculpture, photographs, logos), plays, choreography, films, slides, sound recordings, and songs, including all preparatory work, models and notes.
Purely oral expression does not qualify for copyright, nor do titles, names, slogans, methods, ideas, factual information or works in the public domain

6. Copyright
Ideas are not usually capable of being owned by anyone; they are free for all to use. The expression of ideas, if recorded, may have a copyright;
Copyright arises automatically once the work is created;
Registration or marking the work with a copyright claim ("© [author's name][year of publication]") is an optional but wise precaution.
Authors are usually the first copyright owners
but if they create work as part of their duty as an employee, the employer first owns the copyright.

7. Copyright
Copyright prevents someone copying, publishing, translating or broadcasting a work without the copyright owner's consent.
It lasts for the author's life plus 50 years
except for photographs, sound recordings and films of live events, where a straight 50 year term from creation applies.
Authors also have "moral rights" to have their work properly attributed, and not to have it distorted or modified so as to prejudice their honour or reputation.
cannot be assigned; can only be waived
no-one, not even the owner, may distort or otherwise alter a work that affects the integrity of the work or the reputation of the author without permission

8. Trademark
word, symbol, design that distinguishes a good or service in the marketplace, as well as the reputation of the provider
™ vs. ®
registration is national and for 15 yrs + renewal
must register in each country you want protection
To file trade-mark application:
Find a trade-mark agent, who will search for similar marks
Trade-marks are published in the ‘Trademarks Journal’

9. Pick the mechanism that is most relevant
copyright
patent
industrial design
trademark
trade secret
confidential information

10. Commercialization of IP
license/royalties
assignment/sale
equity/start up company
contracts/consulting work
trade secrets

11. Further information Canadian Intellectual Property Office
United States Patent and Trademark Office
World Intellectual Property Office
Others
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