Patents apply to inventions, gives the owner exclusive ownership

Trademark is a specific sign that identifies a commercial entity- a logo, name, or phrase

Copyright is when the creator of an original work are granted exclusive rights for a limited time. That limited time has grown over time it started with 14 years and is now lifetime plus 70 years for corporate works, 95 years from date of publication or 120 years from creation. Having the idea of something protecting your invention from being “stolen” inspires people to keep having new ideas with the goal of bettering humanity.

It also makes people try to cheat the system, people don’t want to pay for things but things cost money, and now to pay for the rights to something in order to use it.

The Real Book is an example of cheating and release things that have copyrights for free. It was technically not legal but everyone knew about it.

Having rights to intellectual property is tricky because it is treating it the same as physical property. They are 2 separate entities and should be viewed as different. There is ownership of things that are palpable and in the physical realm and there is ownership of ideas and makes people want to create in order to have an impact on something.