ABSTRACT
Law and ethics originate in questions of right and wrong, good and bad, fair and unfair. Problems in law and ethics arise because the right, good, and fair often conflict with personal advantage—profit, advancement, convenience, or expediency. Resolving these conflicts is complex because profit is an incentive to development of improvements in thought, systems of organization, and products. Intellectual property includes products of research and creative work, such as publications, software, inventions, and manufacturing processes. Intellectual property law provides writers, inventors, researchers, and artists with the incentive to accept the risks and costs of development by giving them the right to profit from their work. Trademarks and patents, like copyrights, identify and protect intellectual property. A patent protects an invention, which may be an object, process, composition of matter, or design. A trade secret is information that is not generally known and that can provide its owner with a competitive advantage.
