You Down with IP…P? Part 1
Posted by Lynn Lim | February 8, 2013This is the first of two installments about how agency work is evolving to become part of the IP conversation. Part 1 will be a basic overview of the relevant legal terrain, while Part 2 will address why we should care.
After the recent squabble between social product development company Quirky and OXO, I’ve been pretty fascinated by intellectual property issues and, well, patents. I find this dispute much more interesting than the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung battle because it has played out in the real world, rather than behind closed courtroom doors, and the conversation has been (largely) in laymen’s terms not legalese. Also some of the language used reminds of Mean Girls! But hopefully I am not alone in my dorky fascination, nor in my realization that – crap! – there’s a lot about the current state of intellectual property that I don’t exactly understand…especially as more and more of these disputes center around the very technology that we as agencies are not only using but starting to create.