[Board] Definition of "IP" and "Intellectual Poverty"

[Arnulf Christl]

Board,
we still do not seem to have a common position wrt to what we
understand by "IP" or "Intellectual Property". The shortest possible
answer is no longer than 160 character [0] and reads:

Note: Software ‪#patents‬ are dangerous, hinder innovation, make
monopolies. Never confuse with copyright or license. "IP" is a
misnomer!

Therefore whenever there is no way to avoid using the term "IP" or
"Intellectual Property" I put them in quotes.

Wikipedia [1] defines the term as covering:

* copyrights
* trademarks
* patents
* industrial design rights
* trade secrets

...and adds "in some jurisdictions." For convenience some people then
also add "licenses" to the mix and while we are at it NDA, CLA and so
on. In a way these things are related and depend on each other but
they are also distinct and in many cases contradict each other, more
so in different legislations. It should be apparent that mixing these
concepts is not helpful to create clarity and this is why we should be
very clear on what we mean by each individually and not lump them
together. More thoughts by greater minds are also linked from
Wikipedia [2].

Best regards,
Arnulf

[0] https://twitter.com/sevenspatial/status/205184977963450370
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_Property
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_Property#The_term_itself

-- 
Arnulf Christl
(OSGeo President)
http://www.osgeo.org