What is “Intellectual Property” (IP)?

•Exclusive Rights to Certain Intellectual Products (Ideas)

–Necessary due to the “non-rivalrous” nature of ideas:

•“He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.” – Thomas Jefferson

•Basis in U.S. Constitution

–Congressional authority “[t]o 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” (Art. I, Sec. 8, Cl. 8)..