Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights

Enforcement of Intellectual property is not easy in the digital world and when the time comes to take action it is often advocated that the best course of action is “no action”. It is extremely hard to enforce IP rights issues that surface over the net especially with web servers being hosted in different countries all over the world and in a situation like spamming if the ISP shuts down the site that is generating the spam then replacement sites crop up like amoeba just hosted by a different service provider in an other country.

When it comes to piracy, copyright and patent infringement it is child’s play to download, copy, share and disseminate software, movies, music, books etc. Now should one turn a blind eye to this? What about patented products in the biotechnology, medical, engineering and other research intensive fields, now is this IP infringement worth protecting and fighting for?

Most countries having global trade transactions have some form of Intellectual Property laws and have signed the World Trade Organization agreement but in-spite of this enforcement is insignificant compared to the infringement and losses. One has to pick and choose their battles but cannot just roll over and wet themselves, and if no measures are taken to enforce the IP rights by taking legal action then there will be no incentive left to invent, conduct research, innovate and profit (for both the companies and the lawyers and the essence of capitalism is providing the environment to profit legally, for the IP infringers are profiting illegally!