[Upd-discuss] Re: [A2k] EFF, PK Drop ACTA Suit -- Anyone to Take Up the Case Now?

[John Howkins]

Intellectual property developed differently as a phrase in different legal
systems. In Continental Europe around 1970s it was initially restricted to
industrial property, ie registered rights whose prime purpose was economic
and which were tradeable whereas copyright was seen primarily as a moral
right that was held by individuals and not often tradeable/assignable and
certainly not as property. The UK was in line with this, but leaning more to
the US property-based view.  The phrase intellectual property got traction
as international and national bodies brought the various systems together;
eg, when WIPO, founded 1974, took over the universal copyright convention
from UNESCO. Where UNESCO talked about culture and education, WIPO talked
about property.
John


On 25/6/09 1:59 am, "Richard Stallman" <rms@gnu.org> wrote:

> The term "intellectual property" was used rarely in the 19th century
> and most of the 20th.  As far as I can tell, widespread use began only
> in the 1980s.
>
> I have asked people to check their old law school course catalogs to
> see when the term first appeared there.  I don't have a lot of
> answers, but all of them were 80s or the 90s.
>
>
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