Social Media is on a daily, minute after minute, growth spurt.   People in today’s society look to social media more often, for news, entertainment, stories, gossip etc. Blogging has added a major increase to the views of social media. Many people are considered “Journalist,” just from being able to express themselves for the world to see. This also comes into play with Intellectual Property. Since the world today is basically a social media heaven, it only has room for the unnecessary. Intellectual Property is work that has been created by a person and they own it because it’s theirs. From the Business Dictionary, Intellectual Property is defined as “Knowledge, creative ideas, or expressions of human mind that have commercial value and are protectable under copyright, patent, service mark, trademark, or trade secret laws from imitation, infringement, and dilution.”

In many cases people create stories and/or work pieces that have and/or will be stolen from them right under their noses. That is where intellectual property comes into play. It is illegal to steal someone’s work without either asking for permission or citing the source in which it was received from. That is why it is even more important to get your work either, copyrighted, trademarked, or patented. Today people take peoples’ stories and/or work so often, people do not even look into receiving proper attribution. Some people do not believe it is wrong to use others work, while some people do.

After speaking with a former student of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Sierra Lucas, she informed me that to her “intellectual property will eventually not exist because it’s easier an easier everyday for people to have more and more access to other people’s work.” Explaining how different laws have come into play to work hard to give those responsible for the work credit she expressed that “even if laws are coming into play the internet is growing everyday and websites are being made and people always need something to talk about and they sometimes feel the need to steal, it won’t change.”

According to Bloomberg, “Intellectual Ventures, the so-called “invention company” begun by former Microsoft Corp. chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold, has set up an in-house lobbying team in Washington, according to the Washington Post.” Since the Intellectual Ventures Company does own over 70,000 patents this could possibly change the ways of intellectual property and make it more reasonable for those who want their work to be patent.

If you are interested in getting your work copyrighted you can visit the copyright website, trademarked the trademark website, or patented the patent website. You can also visit maximize social business website and read their story on how to secure your intellectual property.