Prior to this week’s discussions I have never really put much thought into intellectual property and the implications associated with it.  During my research this week I visited the Canadian Intellectual Property Office website to get a better understanding of the Canadian Laws pertaining to intellectual property.  The site contains information pertaining for individuals to apply for trademarks, patents or copyrights.  It even has a database access that can be searched to find out if a patent, trademark or copyright already exists.  According to what’s written on the site, intellectual assets are also referred to as intangible assets, inventions or new technologies, new brands, etc. are considered intellectual assets.  The site provides information on how intellectual assets can be protected along with the process involved with ensure it is done correctly and legally binding.  If I ever invent anything in the future I will definitely visit this site again to see how I may protect it.

This week’s Pyramid debate looked at multiple scenarios where we had to justify why it would be ok to breach existing license agreements.  Within my group Louis and I looked at it from different perspective, I looked at it from the point of view that since we purchased five software licenses, there would be no harm in using one CD to install the software on five computers once the license information is stored in the license database and allocated to the five computers it would be ok to breach that license agreement.  On the other hand Louis countered that argument by suggesting it is out right wrong and there may be tremendous ramifications in the future, and placing convenience or what is right is not a good enough reason to breach an agreement like this.  Louis took the moral high ground, I personally did not disagree with him he had a valid point when making such decisions, we tend to look at the view point that best suits our need at the time, but upon further reflection and considering all possibilities that may occur in the future would most likely provide a different view in breaching license agreements in the future.

The question I had to ask myself this week was “ How Would I feel if  my intellectual property was ever compromised” honestly it would not matter, because I believe that in order for ideas to evolve it is worth sharing.  I however can see this being a big issue when industries and infringements rights are at play because in most cases it affects the success for the industry which eventually affects the bottom line.       

Reference

Schutte, S. (2014, October 6). Real Business. Retrieved October 15, 2015, from http://realbusiness.co.uk/article/27905-legal-loophole-in-intellectual-property-act-could-drive-away-business

Stand out from our Competitors: Make Intellectual Property your best business Ally. (2004). Retrieved October 15, 2015, from https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/vwapj/brochure-eng.pdf/$FILE/brochure-eng.pdf

Understand the basics. (2015, October 2). Retrieved October 15, 2015, from http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/wr03585.html?Open&wt_src=cipo-ip-main