Your Own Arguments and Opinions

I will admit that I was some what nervous while calling up a childhood friend turned lawyer to pester with questions about intellectual property.  I usually carry myself confidently, but bad old memories and years of not speaking turned the tide for me.  Getting over that fear was the hardest for me, but once I did it was a piece of cake.  Everyday (maybe even every hour or minute) intellectual property is being stolen and used without the original owners consent.  This is just a part of life and something we will all have to live with.

The best thing to do in situations like this is to eduacate yourself on how to prevent such things.  It is true, like most crimes, that the criminals are ahead of the law and its an on going game of "catch-up" for graphic artist, painters, the fashion industry, and photographers.  What these "thieves" are forgetting  or not realizing is the harm and damage that they do for something that seems so innocent or not harmaful.  They don't know or don't care that as artists, our intellectual property is what puts food on our table, clothes on our childrens back, and pays the mortgage.  As well as that there stealing of intellectual property may only take seconds, while it took the artist maybe months to even conceive and who knows how long it took for the artists' to create.  As artists', we naturally put our blood, sweat, and tears into creating a finished product. 

I am happy to have discovered that as artists' there are many things we can do to help protect what we create.  Whether it being trademarking a photographer's logo, an inventor filing for a patent from the USPTO, "United States Patent and Trademark Office  is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification." Patents, Copyrights, & Trademarks, page 39 , or a graphic designer copyrighting their web design pages.  As artists we need to come to the realization that sooner or later in our careers we will be face with such issues as intellectual property theft. "Intellectual Property Theft occurs when ones intellectual property is stolen.  It is the fastest growing theft in the world."  Patents, Copyrights, & Trademarks, page 79  To steal an old sports sports saying "the best offense is a good defense".  So in conclusion we as artists need to think before we post or give away our art and stay defensive with our creations.