An IP gripe

Am I the only one who resents the term "Intellectual Property" being used only for patents? I just got a flyer in the mail advertising a CLE called "International Judge Conference on Intellectual Property Law." A quick glance at the schedule told me that this is a conference on patent law.

Earlier this year, I was asked to be on a career panel at the University of Oregon law School representing "soft" intellectual property -- by which they meant "not patents" which, apparently, goes as "hard" intellectual property.

I resent that. Many of the most important, cutting edge issues in IP law are in the areas of copyright and trademarks -- esp. with Internet issues such as copyright infringement by posting on a web site and domain names as trademark.

The kind of IP law I practice, that is copyrights, trademarks and licensing, is IP. Period. Not "hard"; not "soft" -- just intellectual property.

Sorry for the slight diatribe but it really pisses me off.

Carol Cricow
<carol[_at_]yujean.com> Received on Thu Aug 12 1999 - 16:37:53 GMT