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A. Intellectual Property Rights in the United States
Intellectual property rights are social and legal ownership rights conveyed to the creators of works that exist in tangible forms. These rights evolve from many sources, of which national laws on the use of artistic, literary, and cultural works are perhaps the most commonly cited. International treaties and conventions also add to the development of intellectual property rights concepts. Case law, the body of legal decisions made by courts and tribunals in private disputes, plays an important role in the articulation of intellectual property rights because it interprets laws and regulations within a practical legal framework. Legal doctrines such as "fair use" represent policy principles on certain questions of law, and their tenets are respected and considered in legal interpretations of intellectual property rights. No less important are customs and traditions of use, which contribute to the form and substance of intellectual property rights within a profession.1
Intellectual property rights are codified from country to country in laws that vary in type, interpretation, and use. Efforts have been under way for a long time to harmonize these various rights across countries and legal systems via treaties (e.g., the Berne Convention and Universal Copyright Convention)2 and organizations (e.g., World Intellectual Property Organization [WIPO]).3 As more intellectual property is distributed on electronic networks, these efforts will become increasingly important, since it will be difficult to enforce the laws of individual nations when information freely and continually crosses geographic boundaries.
In the United States, intellectual property rights fall within the purview of three separate legal regimes: trademark, patent, and copyright. Many organizations possess intellectual property that falls under all three. For example, Apple Computer, Inc.™ owns the trademark on its name and logo, the patent to many of the inventions used in its products, and the copyright to the software it has created to run on its computers. Educational institutions, with their research emphasis, tend to have intellectual property that spans all three regimes. In cultural heritage organizations, most intellectual property falls within the copyright or trademark regimes.