In contemporary society, knowledge capital drives most of the economy of most nations than physical capital. Countries today are apprehensive of heightening the significance of ideas, which calls for intellectual property rights that secure value. Intangible assets such as goodwill, image and knowledge capital represent the greater part of the value in large corporations (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). Therefore, the intellectual property system should meet the standards of all appropriators and should be one designed for the digital era.
The author suggests forms of intellectual property that organizations can employ in their systems. These include patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets. Patents protect the company’s inventions and ideas so that others are prohibited not to do something similar without permission. The functionalities of products, processes or technologies, features of a product should be protected through enforcing patent rights. The Congress also protects the rights of authors through issuing copyrights to their books, computer software, songs, journals, photographs, etc. Not all inventions can be patented. Mathematical methods, scientific theories, and among others cannot be patented. According to Abadi, Abadi, Zamani, and Kiani (2017), some of these valued inventions can be protected only as trade secrets. It may not be treated as an intellectual property right; however, it possesses similar legal and commercial significance as other intellectual rights. Trademarks and patents are rights that are instituted regionally (Jennings, 2014). As trademarks protect the mark that identifies items, patents secure the invention, whereas trade secrets secure the confidential information of a person or organization.
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Commitment should be demonstrated in aggressive enforcement of intellectual rights to alleviate counterfeit or pirated products. The intellectual right system should be balanced and flexible enough to overcome the distractions that come about through the digital era (Jennings, 2014). There is a call to enhance the intellectual property rights systems for organizations in that pertinent information as well as recommendations on intellectual rights can be easily accessed, obtained and enforced in organizations.
References
Abadi, S. D. B., Abadi, M. H. R. G., Zamani, S. G., & Kiani, M. (2017). Legal, Commercial, Medical, Ethical and Environmental Aspects of Granting Patents for Biotechnological Innovations. J. Pol. & L. , 10 , 62.
Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases . Nelson Education.
Jennings, M. M. (2014). Business: Its legal, ethical, and global environment . Nelson Education.
