I was enlightened to learn about four different types of intellectual property, both unprotected and protected types. The ones I found particularly interesting include the following plus their eample
(1) Trademark
I was surprised to learn about the different types of visuals that could be trademarked. Many mobile device makers take care to build their brand equity around the ubiquitous presentation of their trademark stylizations. Google, for example, is distinguished by its
(2) Copyright
Interestingly enough, Copyrights are something that we all have access to. Something interesting I learned about individualized 'copyrights' is that you can share the right to use your work through "Creative Commons" license. This is an interesting concept of claiming ownership of your work, but allowing others to use your work when properly crediting it to you. For example, if I put a Creative Commons license on a sound track that I create from scratch, I will enable download on the song and allow others to use it for mash ups and videos as long as they credit me somewhere in the process. It's an interesting concept to share your work but still retain the credit for it.
(3) Trade Secrets!
What I'm slightly concerned about with 'trade secrets' is how long and how feasible it is to keep a 'formula' or 'recipe' secret for long. If, for example, Coca Cola believes that its recipe is truly secret, I am thinking, why not just patent it? First off, some employee somewhere is going to leak information regardless of whether they pledge their alliance to the firm or not. And secondly, in this day and age, I'm not sure that it's too difficult to reverse engineer the components through looking at its contents under microscopic lens (I have butchered scientific terminology there, so pardon my language).
Rather, if Coca Cola had chosen to patent their formula for success, they would have legal protection for it, and hence inhibit competitors from making the same formula. I think this would be great for innovation as well, since competitors would race to develop something better (maybe carbonated juice--oh wait, oops. That already exists...)
There are so many ways to coin your intellectual property. I'm interested in the cost-benefit analysis a company goes through to determine which is the best route to take.
Interesting thoughts on the trade secrets. I would have to argue that although patenting the coco-cola drink would seem to protect the company, I feel that there would be issues upon renewing the patent or when the patent expire. I think it makes more sense to save the thousands of dollars for patenting and not just tell anyone outside the company how they make the product! And I'm positive that Coca-cola is such a huge company that it could legally 'destroy' anyone who leaks out their recipe!
ReplyDeleteThe only issue I think that would bring up is that when the trade secret is leaked (and a recipe is very easily determinable by reverse engineering tools), then Coca Cola has no way to legally enforce its ownership under the law. I think many companies out there produce the same product (Orange juice, for example), but smaller brands have the capability to stand out if they are agile. smart, and figure out an effective marketing angel! Coke is, after all, sugar water, so they're not selling the product itself for sure :p
DeleteI am still not a believer in trade secrets. How can you rely on some secret formula for the future of a company? I mean, for huge companies like Coca-cola, it is still hard to believe that it will fall if its so-called "secret recipe" is leaked. I think may trade secrets are the "secret ingredient soup" in Kung Fu Panda, if you know what I am saying :) Companies make profit by business strategies and efficient operation (for Coca-cola, advertisement!) not by keeping their trade secrets secret...
ReplyDeleteYa, I think I have the same questions about trade secret as you. I wonder how long the trade secret can be kept. Does the company need to register to protect the trade secret? If the secret leaks, how can they sue other company? In other word, how can they prove the secret is theirs?
ReplyDeleteI think your example of "Creative Commons" is a good use of the term just because in the music industry, its a great way to produce more/newer music. In terms of corporations, it's usually all or nothing with copyrights, but it would be interesting to find an example of corporations using "Creative Commons"
ReplyDeleteYup! I also believe there are different versions of the Creative Commons license, some kinds in which you aren't allowed to 'modify' the original content, and another kind in which you have full reign to snip as you'd like so long as you credit the original artist. I think it's a great way to 'share' and allow others to want to use your work! :)
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