To begin, “Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions; literary and artistic works; and symbols, names and images used in commerce” intellectual property is protected by the law, in form of patents, trademarks and copyright. Intellectual property is split into two categories; copyright and industrial property. Copyright covers films, music, art and literary works; copyright ensures that the patent holder is the primary benefactor of their creation. Industrial property covers patents for inventions, trademarks and industrial designs.
Patents provide protection of ownership for inventors of products, which provide incentive for everyone to try and create products that are better and more efficient than their predecessors as they know that they can safely reap the rewards of their own success for themselves. Without this people would be much less encouraged to invent new products for the market as no one would be able to be the sole benefactor of their own works as once created anyone could claim that they are the owners. Therefore it can be argued that without IP rights the world could be much less developed with much less advanced technologies due to lack of incentive for inventors, researchers and artists. Innovation blooms when artists and inventors are promised reward for the success of their products, for example people who upload their songs to ITunes are rewarded with the credit for their music and sometimes money if consumers are made to pay for their products, and consumers are rewarded with good quality products and service – which is incentive for them to return, which is incentive for artists to work harder to make their works more desirable. This is a plus for the economy as it puts quality products in the hands of the consumer and well deserved money in the pockets of hard working artists, everyone wins. Without IP rights artists