Intellectual property (IP) rights help creators limit who uses their work without giving value in return. This protection encourages innovation in thought and expression. Academics featured on this site research topics such as open source licensing, digital rights management, patent reform, IP and technical standards, trademarks, and trade secrets.
Copyrights and trademark are both types of intellectual property (IP). Copyright is a legal term describing rights given to creators for their literary and artistic works. A trademark provides protection to the owner of the mark by ensuring the exclusive right to use it to identify goods or services, or to authorize another to use it in return for payment.
Open source is an approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering accessibility to a software’s source code. It is a licensing model of intellectual property.
A patent provides protection for an invention to the owner of the patent. The protection is granted for a limited period, generally 20 years. Patent protection means that the invention cannot be commercially made, used, distributed or sold without the patent owner's consent.
Advanced Web-based technologies now allow consumers to either keep files and functions on the desktop, or to buy those services from firms running computer servers elsewhere. Researchers featured on TAP explore the implications of these trends for pricing, competition, and security of content and services delivered and housed remotely.
Competition policy uses economic analysis to enhance our understanding of how firm behavior affects social welfare. Scholars featured on this site consider how technology markets function, and the special issues raised by networks, platforms, interoperability, and bundling by firms like Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
Interoperability refers to the ability of diverse systems and organizations to work together. Although the term is often used in a technical sense, cultural, political and business factors can lead to data not being shared. Interoperability can be achieved through initial product design, collaboration in product development, standards, and licensing design.
Researchers today are trying to understand how information technology affects wealth, productivity, and economic growth while studying the impact of political and legal ground rules. Academics featured here are looking at the potential to raise standards of living and keep policymakers aware of emerging trends in technology.
Information technology lets people learn about one another on a scale previously unimaginable. Information in the wrong hands can be harmful. Scholars on this site consider problems of privacy, fraud, identity, and security posed by the digital age.
