Intellectual Property Law 101 — Anwesha Das

Intellectual property law protects both tangible and intangible assets created by human intellect

Main types of IP protection:

• Patents: Protect novel ideas and inventions for a limited time
• Trademarks: Identify and distinguish products/services from different sources
• Copyright: Protects original creative expressions and implementations

Software licenses declare rights between developers and users:

• Proprietary licenses: Most restrictive
• Open source licenses: Balance between public domain and proprietary
• Public domain: Least restrictive

Open source license categories:

• Permissive licenses (MIT, BSD, Apache)
• Reciprocal/copyleft licenses (GPL)
• Important to choose based on use case, not personal preference

Trademark protection:

• TM symbol indicates unregistered trademark
• ® symbol indicates registered trademark with patent office
• Territorial/jurisdictional protection varies by country

Copyright automatically applies to code:

• No registration required
• Protects specific implementation/expression
• Software licenses manage copyright permissions

Patent considerations:

• Must be novel and new
• Time-limited monopoly rights (typically 20 years)
• Can be risky and expensive to obtain
• Open Invention Network helps protect open source from patent risks

Best practices:

• Don’t create custom licenses
• Choose appropriate license for project needs
• Consider jurisdiction differences
• Review existing FAQs before asking common questions