Intellectual Property

In Informatics Entrepreneurship class, there was a presentation on IP (Intellectual Property) from a lawyer. He was talking about the copy right, patent and open source license as well.

There are two kinds of level for intellectual protection: copyright and patent.

Copyright comes automatically. You do not need to apply for. Copyright is the right for you to copy something and sell it. If I take a lecture, I automatically have the copyright to sell it. However, the idea behind the lecture is not protected by the copy right, but it can be protected by the patent.

Patent is an important asset for a company sustainable advantage according to the seven model from …..(forget his name).

If a company hire a consultant to build a website, who owns a website. The consultant really owns the website, but he may sell the right to use it to the company. That’s mean the company may not have an access to the source code or the ability to redistribute the website. Thus, the company may seek to secure this asset (website).

If a researcher in a university invented something, who owns it. In UK, the university usually owns it. The university may use patent to secure loan.

MySQL case …