ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how intellectual property protection works. It 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 creation of copyright protection in response to the printing press is a striking example of the evolution of intellectual property protection in response to new technology. The creation of computer software posed urgent questions for the traditional forms of intellectual property protection. The players in biotechnology range from start-up firms to well-known industrial giants. An enormous amount of equity investment is supporting the fast growing application of modern biotechnology to industrial, university and public service activity. Reverse engineering is occasionally spoken of as though it were an activity which violates intellectual property protection. Man's ability to understand, capture, generate and use electricity has profoundly changed the way humans live.
