I wanted to recap my presentation for the Intellectual Property portion, both for those not there and others who wanted to review it again. It is a confusing topic but I will make an attempt to define it as accuratly as possible. Intellectual property laws cover ideas dealing with copyrights, display of work in public, infringement, and allow different amount of protection with consideration to the date of the work. In a more specific instance, U.S commercial law which resides in matters entailing trademark law deals with words and/or designs which are used to specific a company. The federal standard for trademark is that it must characterize the company while at the same time adhering to the law. Trademarks must be acceptable for public domain, should not closely resemble a flag of a country or a person’s signature or likeness (without consent), nor can it be geographically descriptive of origin or product. If the trademark passes the stated rules above than it can be protected by the Lanham Act of 1946.
When it comes to virtual property the laws are not set in stone. Although material may develop via internet, to actually be eligible for copyright protection the material must be found in a fixed tangible medium as well as being original. A concern here is if the material is created and transmitted electronically should it be considered ‘fixed’. This also leads to the question if a document exits in physical space and is placed on the internet should it be protected for it is a second copy and not original.
All of this is confusing and I am looking foward to the furture to see what actual digital copywrite laws will or will not be put into place.