Intellectual Property Rights Overview

Does the nature of the technology require us to change the legal understanding or status of copyright as it stands now? What rights should be associated with Web content? How should the rights be expressed, and should the expression of the rights be used for notification, enforcement, or payment negotiation? We expect the answer to these questions does not lie solely in technology nor policy, but the rational combination of both.

Utility Patents cover "inventions" -- a machine, an article of manufacture, a method of doing something, a chemical or DNA sequence or the method of its use, products of genetic engineering, or improvements to any of these things.
Plant Patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers, and asexually reproduces, a new variety of certain kinds of plants. (Note that other kinds of plants, especially those altered by genetic engineering, may be protectable under utility patents).
Design Patents cover the ornamental appearance of a useful device but not its function. For example, the body shape of a Porsche "Targa" automobile and the case of the IBM Selectric® typewriter were the subject of design patents.
Trademarks cover the name or some other symbol (logo) which represent the source of a product or service. eg. The name, logo or the shape of the product.
Copyrights protect works of authorship, composition, or artistry.
Trade secret is the privacy of not reviling the contents of a product. eg. Coke-Cola and the ingredients that go into it.
Domain names can be registered as TRADEMARKS.