What is Intellectual Property (IP)?

At the risk of oversimplifying the entire concept of 'Intellectual Property', I'll try explaining, in simple English, what I'm currently working with at Evalueserve. So here goes...

Let's first see what the conventional notion of prorty is. You can claim your rights over property. For example, that piece of land is mine - you can't build a house on it without my permission. That pen is mine - you can't write with it without my permission. You can even physically prevent a person from building on your land or writing with your pen. You can physically verify whether that person is using your land, pen, car, whatever.

The concept of intellectual property is basically the concept of "ideas over which you can claim your rights." For example, you can't use compound XYZ to cure flu - that's my idea. You can't write a webpage which let's you buy a book using a single mouse click - that's my idea! (That's an actual patent owned by Amazon! And that's just one of the nasty patents owned by them!)

To be able to assert your rights over a certain physical property you first need to prove your ownership of that property. For example, to claim a piece of land as your own you need to have it registered in your name. To claim a vehicle as your own, you need to have an RC (registration certificate) in your name. To claim a pen as your own (I don't know when you'll need to do that!) you'll probably need a proof of purchase - a sales receipt - for that pen.

Similary, to assert your rights over an IP you need to prove that you own that IP. How can one prove that he/she owns an idea? It's absurd if you really think of it! What does owning an idea actually mean?

Let's take the case of physical property first. In the context of physical property owning can be thought to mean exclusivity. If I build my house on this piece land, you can't. If you eat my food, I get to eat less. So basically, if someone else uses your physical property you will be deprived of that property in some sense or the other.

What about IP? If I employ the idea of using aspirin to prevent heart attacks*, what does it deprive you of? Even you can use the same idea! One subtle difference here is, the issue of importance is not the aspirin - it's the concept of "using an aspiring to prevent heart attacks". Obviously, if I use up the only aspirin in the house to cure my headache you're surely going to die of the impending heart attack! But you can, in theory, go out and get another aspirin and use that to prevent your heart attack instead of your headache. You can still use the idea.

So, if by sharing my ideas, I'm not being deprived of anything, why the need to own IP in the first place? Sample this: You, or your company, has spent a million odd bucks to research this new compound which can lower the levels of cholestrol in the human body. After years of hard work you finally start marketing a drug based on that compound And the day you release the drug in the market, your Chinese competitor reverse engineers it and is selling the same drug for peanuts! Where does that leave you? Would any individual (or company) ever want to invest huge monies in research only to be washed away by cheap competition in the market? How would they get their ROI (new term I learnt :-) Return On Investment!)

This is were IP steps in. By filing a patent in the patent office you stake a claim that the concept/idea of doing such-and-such thing was conceived by me, and no one else can use it without my permission. The patent office then examines your claim and checks whether it's valid. They check for prior art - which basically means they make sure no one else has done the same thing before. If your idea is indeed novel, you're awarded the patent and then you can assert your rights over the IP. In short, you own the idea! Weird, huh?

BUT, but, but - you can't file a patent for an idea alone! Contradicting myself, am I? No! On paper at least, you can't patent a pure idea. You have to patent an embodiment of the idea. For example, you can't patent the concept of manufacturing pens. You have to patent an actual machine which manufactures pens. You have to submit drawings of the machine along with details of how it works to be awarded a patent. No one else can use the same kind of machine to manufacture pens. However, one may use a totally different kind of machine. Your machine employed drawing pen bodies from molten plastic, my machine employes casting pen bodies, or whatever!

BUT, but, but - it seems you in fact can patent ideas! Many countries have things like 'business method patents' and 'software patents' - which complicate everything up! More on such stuff in later posts! This is long enough for now :-)

* Note: The original 'inventors' of aspirin were not aware of it's ability to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Therefore, this idea was novel! I'm not sure whether the newly found use was patented or not! On a separate not read this - History of Aspirin.