Knowing Your Rights Concerning Intellectual Property

There is this man who has an exceptional talent in literature and music. Almost all the time, he writes heart-touching poems which he sometimes turns into songs. He writes everything on his own and he dreams of seeing himself as a popular singer-composer or a poet in the future.

He does everything to reach for his dreams – attempting to sell his songs to recording companies and joining national writing contests. It is his greatest dream to be known in the fiels of music and literature. Unfortunately, it’s as though his compositions lack marketability because not even one person pays attention to them.

He thought of shutting off his dreams from his system until one lazy day, he heard a nice song on the radio. The nice melody got his attention and so he listened more attentively. That was when he realized how familiar the lyrics are. He may not be familiar with the melody but regarding the words, he is pretty sure that those are exactly the lyrics of one of his old songs!

What a poor guy, somebody must have stolen his intellectual property! What should he do?

Intellectual Property Defined

Each and every creative asset (music, artwork, literary piece etc) that is produced by a certain individual by himself is commonly called his intellectual property. The material is owned and must be fully controlled by its creator.

An Owner’s Rights As Regards To His Intellectual Property

The owner is the only one who can use his intellectual property. He is likewise the lone person who can reproduce his own work. Should he authorize other people to use his work, then that’s the only time it could be used by others – only the authorized ones.

Moreover, the owner also has the right to object to changes by other parties to his work. Every single action done with his intellectual property without his permission is subject to penalty, if the owner wishes to fight for his rights.

Courses Of Action To Do If The Intellectual Property Is Stolen

Going back to the story, the man has the right to demand an investigation and file a case against the company or person who used his song without permission. What he ought to do first is to determine the possible suspects. The guy once tried to sell his compositions to a recording company and thus, the company representative and all other people involved in his attempt to sell his song could be accountable for what happened.

After identifying the possible suspects, an investigation could be carried out. After the results have come out, the guy may still have the choice to either ask for further investigations or ask for some specific courses of actions.

An intellectual property must be given a high importance, just like every other property. The owner worked hard for it, beat his brains out for it; and thus by all means, he must protect his property and do all the necessary things to fight for his rights.

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