“‘Intellectual property’ is the term used to describe the intangible creations of the human mind,” began Joseph A. Edminister, a recruiter from the Akron School of Law, at his lecture and panel discussion on intellectual property last Thursday. The goal of the lecture was to make students aware of opportunities within the field of patent law, and more specifically of the branch known as IP, or intellectual property. On the panel were Bernard G. Pike, a patent attorney, and Carl Mahler, the Senior Project Manager of the Innovation Transfer Center here at Carnegie Mellon. In short, he is in charge of helping students and the University apply for and receive patents.

Early in the lecture, Edminister pointed out that patents for IP were planned for even by the founding fathers, as is clearly stated in the constitution under Article 1, Section 8. Congress will have the power “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

Of course, James Madison and his cohorts could never have thought of the possibilities of creation that exist today. Some examples of unusual things that can be patented include processes, business methods, compositions of matter, genetically engineered creations, and even organisms. The first case of a conventional animal being patented is the monumental case of the Harvard Mouse. In this case, a mouse was genetically altered so that it would contract cancer, and it made it feasible to patent other similarly altered organisms as well.

Patents can be granted for anything that is a new invention or a “new and useful improvement” of anything currently existing, patented or not, provided that it is not obvious.

Carnegie Mellon is similar to most universities in that it applies for a good deal of patents each year. According to Carl Mahler, six patent applications have gone out so far this year, and as many as 50 in the past two years.

“CMU is a very generous university compared to most,” Mahler explained, “After the initial costs from the patent application process have been earned back, the University splits any further profits with its actual student creators 50/50.” Of course, this only happens when the given patent is profitable.

However, the most important form of IP for the average college student to understand is the copyright. Copyrights protect all material that is “fixed in a tangible form of expression,” where a “tangible form of expression” is something like paper, film, or other such media.

Copyrights grant a monopoly to the creators of the copyrighted material, making it illegal for someone else to copy, produce, sell or otherwise use the material without the permission (which is understood to be a fee) of the creator. According to the US Copyright Office, the kinds of material that may be copyrighted include literary works, musical works, dramatic works, pantomimes and choreographic works, pictoral, graphic, or sculptural works, motion pictures, sound recordings, and architectural works.

What is controversial in this matter is the length of the monopoly that a copyright grants. A copyright claim lasts the length of the author's life plus 70 years. If the work is copyrighted by some other entity, like a film or recording company, the copyright lasts 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.

In response to the question posed to all three panelsts, "Do you feel that the length of copyrights is too short, too long, or just right?" Mahler said that he felt they were excessively long.

He cited two problems with copyright legislation.

“The current laws don’t require there to be information as to who owns the copyright,” he said.

This makes it virtually impossible to get permission to use some material. His other problem was the length of copyrights.

“Creators should be required to renew their copyrights just like other patents must be renewed after 10 or 20 years. It could even cost as little as $20. There are just so many books out there that are so old that they’re out of print and could be saved online, digitally.”