Intellectual Property Theft – Infringement of the Mind

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property is a reference to all the creations of the mind by a person or a group. It may be for personal or even a commercial purpose that something has been written in the form of a literary composition or created as in the case of a musical or theatrical composition. Even a film is a part of the intellectual property of its writer and or director and producer. The owners of intellectual property have all rights reserved for their creation. Therefore no one has the authority to access these intellectual property or use them for their own benefit without due permission of the owner. They have no right to recreate or reproduce the compositions in any way. They also do not have the right to distribute or use the property in any commercial purpose whatsoever.

Intellectual Property Theft

There is several thousands of intellectual property thefts everyday across the countries of the world. These are ever increasing with easy internet accessibility also.

• Entertainment Industry Thefts – There are various sites that enable users to download free music, videos and even full length feature films. These sites do not pay any royalty to the original makers or producers. These are not only intellectual property thefts but also a swift manner to maneuver losses of millions of dollars for the producing companies worldwide. Film producers too have been facing a great deal of such piracy because of which the entire entertainment industry has suffered.
• Literary and Art Thefts – There are thefts that are incurred by artist, authors and publishers from publications and artistic expressions that they compose. There are copies of these that are made, sold in an unauthorized manner and even distributed on the internet as well as out of the purview of web. Not only do the originals suffer heavy losses but these renditions and imitations also degenerate the original qualitative standards.

Intellectual Property Theft Statistics

There are varying statistics that are available for different countries. These are the rate of losses incurred every year even after tough and stringent laws are implemented.

• 1982 - $5.5 billion dollars – This was the loss that was incurred by the International Trade Commission from infringement of copyright laws and piracy.
• 1988 - $60 million dollars – This was the loss that was suffered by the same organization in the year 1988.
  
• 1996 - $200 million dollars – The total losses suffered by the United States economy from the effects of intellectual property thefts was an amount of $200 million dollars.
  
• 2002 - $9 billion dollars – In this year the American intellectual property segment incurred losses of about $9 million dollars. This was on an international scale across 56 countries.

Intellectual Property Theft Cases

• There are intellectual property thefts every year. These are reported in various companies across the globe that functions on an international basis. There are indigenous cases in countries also.
  2002 – Seven People along with 5 companies across United States, China and India were convicted of selling simulated Viagra (medical drug) across the Internet. The New York county District Attorney charged them with selling fake Viagra pills smuggled in stuffed toys and stereo speakers.
  
• 2001 – The security chief of Novartis International gave his verbal statement and evidence that there was a group that was producing yellow tablets that were an identical replication of their original drug. These were made of floor wax, boric acid and a yellow paint that was used for painting road markings.