Intellectual Property Law
Intellectual Property (IP) law has its basis in the Constitutional imperative (Article II, Section VIII of the U.S. Constitution) that laws should be established to promote science and the useful arts. A body of law that protects inventions and various forms of artistic and scientific expression has been developed through statutes and court interpretation. The range of protectible intellectual property is remarkably broad. It ranges from a sculptor's rights in a sculpture that has been commissioned by a city, to a composer's rights in the performance of and variations in a piece of music, to an inventor's rights in both the hardware and software incorporated in a microprocessor, to a corporation's rights in trademarks in its name, corporate logo, and even the color of its products. The practice of intellectual property law has grown dramatically in recent years as technology has become more important to businesses and services in the global economy.
There are several areas of substantive law within the field of intellectual property, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, unfair competition, and trade secrets. Intellectual property law has also expanded to cross over into other practice areas, such as computer law (negotiation of software licenses and hardware purchase agreements), international law (obtaining and enforcing patents and licenses abroad), and corporate law (mergers and acquisitions involving high technology companies).
Reproduced from The Official Guide to Legal Specialties with permission. (c) 2000 Thomson Reuters/West. For additional information on this publication please visit 
http://west.thomson.com/products/law-students. Copyright granted via e-mail by Donna Gies, September 16, 2008.