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- All Subjects: Copyright
- Creators: Martin, Thomas
Intellectual property (IP) is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Despite being an important motivator for innovation, IP laws and IP protections are largely unknown by most individuals outside of the legal field. The purpose of this work is to condense some of the most fundamental concepts in U.S. intellectual property law and describe them in an understandable way for non-lawyers. This thesis covers basic information on U.S. patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and the ways in which they impact both science and society. Additionally, this thesis discusses the need for better IP education and presents a solution to this problem in the form of a partly completed draft for an educational book. The book itself is meant to illustrate how the research of this thesis can be utilized in introductory educational materials while also demonstrating the potential for presenting IP law concepts in a fun and visual way.
Intellectual property (IP) is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Despite being an important motivator for innovation, IP laws and IP protections are largely unknown by most individuals outside of the legal field. The purpose of this work is to condense some of the most fundamental concepts in U.S. intellectual property law and describe them in an understandable way for non-lawyers. This thesis covers basic information on U.S. patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and the ways in which they impact both science and society. Additionally, this thesis discusses the need for better IP education and presents a solution to this problem in the form of a partly completed draft for an educational book. The book itself is meant to illustrate how the research of this thesis can be utilized in introductory educational materials while also demonstrating the potential for presenting IP law concepts in a fun and visual way.
The methodology for this study consisted of flexible strategies for collecting and analyzing data, primarily elite, semi-structured interviews with professional artists, attorneys, and others who engage with the cultural and legal norms of intellectual property regimes on a regular basis. Constant comparative analysis was used to maintain an emic perspective, prioritizing the subjective experience of individuals interviewed for this research project. Additional methods for qualitative analysis were also employed here to code and categorize gathered data, including the use of RQDA, a software package for Qualitative Data Analysis that runs within the R statistical software program. Various patterns and behaviors relevant to intellectual property reforms as they relate to artist practices were discussed in detail following the analysis of findings, in an effort to describe how cultural norms of copyright intersect with the creation of original works of authorship, and towards the development of the theory that the semiotic sign systems subject to intellectual property laws are not themselves forms of real property, as they do not meet the categorical requirements of scarce resources.