Issues

Intellectual Property

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.

Choose another Issue

Select an Issue

TAP Academics

Paul Ohm
Georgetown University
Intellectual Property, Privacy and Security

View all academics with expertise in this Issue

TAP Blog

Northwestern Professor Daniel Spulber Makes a Case for Patents

The Case for Patents, a new book by Northwestern University business and law professor Daniel Spulber, emphasizes the importance of incentives for invention, innovation, and technology adoption.

TAP Staff Blogger

March 12, 2021

View all blog posts about this Issue

Upcoming Events

China Law, Trade and IP 2021 - Session 2

October 27, 2021,

China Law, Trade and IP 2021 - Session 3

November 10, 2021,

22nd Annual Berkeley-Stanford Advanced Patent Law Institute

December 9, 2021,

View all upcoming events about this Issue

Fact Sheets

Piracy and IP Enforcement

In the context of technology, “piracy” is a colloquial term for the illegal copying of copyrighted works. The related problem of counterfeiting is the illegal reproduction of patented or trademarked products.

View all fact sheets about this Issue

Quote

Google’s Supreme Court Faceoff with Oracle Was a Disaster for Google

There's a real chance the Supreme Court could focus on this issue [the copyright status of APIs] in its decision—perhaps sending the case back down to the lower courts for even more litigation. — James Grimmelmann, Professor of Law, Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School

James Grimmelmann
Ars Technica
October 8, 2020

View all academics' quotes on this Issue

The Use of Technical Experts in Software Copyright Cases: Rectifying the Ninth Circuit’s “Nutty” Rule

The Ninth Circuit has ruled that experts may not testify to help juries understand whether one computer program is similar to another. Ninth Circuit cases fail to properly assess software copyright violations.

By: Peter Menell, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

June 21, 2020

View all articles on this Issue