ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the conceptual nature of intellectual property; it glances at its historical evolution as a legal and commercial institution. It considers the common elements of the five most basic categories of protection. These are patents, copyright, trade secrets, trademarks and mask works. The chapter focuses on the various policy theories which support intellectual property protection. It describes how intellectual property protection works and also considers the issue of how new types of technology are accommodated by traditional forms of protection. The chapter suggests the imperfect nature of protection and how things tend to work in practice. The term "intellectual property" contains both the concept of private creativity and the concept of public protection for the results of that creativity. The chapter analyzes the concept of intellectual property in the international setting new from a fresh perspective; it is useful to distinguish between products of the mind, and intellectual property.
