There are so many businesses emerging, with an aim of paving through the current markets in a better way than others. As businesses develop, competition becomes inescapable, with the newly established trying to emulate the already established businesses. New business may like to copy ideas from other companies, hence calling for the need for the intellectual property. Coca-Cola Company was invented in 1886, and has been producing world’s all-time number one soft drinks, but no one knows the formula they use to make their products. Their patent is well protected from outsiders who may want to emulate their product, and their trade secret, trademark, and copyright remaining a mystery.
Intellectual property is protected to keep ideas a secret (Anton & Yao, 2004). For instance, Coca-Cola Company protects its intellectual property to prevent their competitors from using their ideas to obtain profit without their consent. The copyright of Coca-Cola is displayed in their bottles and logos, which is unique and cannot be employed by any other company apart from Coca Cola. Intellectual properties are also protected to protect the growth of the business. Coca-Cola uses intellectual property to protect their unique products, so as to shield their competitors from using their success to capture their market share, something that may lead to revenue loss. It is the right of Coca-Cola Company to ensure that their intellectual property is not infringed, as consumers may not care about it.
Intellectual property is protected by registering it to the intellectual property law (Bently & Sherman, 2014), just like the way Coca-Cola did. Coca-Cola owns the copyright as their owner, and it is demonstrated in their logos and bottles in a unique way that no other company can copy because they are protected by the law. A trademark is a mark used by a company, to distinguish it from other companies. Trademark protection allows Coca-Cola to distinguish them from their competitors, and to stop any illegal business that may be transacted under the name of Coca-Cola by their counterfeits. The formula to make Coca-Cola was patented in 1983, and it remains a trade secret to keep it away from their competitors (Moser, 2007). Coca-Cola has also registered its patent and is allowed to make plastic containers aid their business.
Intellectual property has gone too far, and this accusation is vivid in the software industry that makes games. The principle objective of intellectual property is to encourage experimentation, but not to hold it back. After producing a game, the life cycles end, and users are left to enjoy the game. However, if users demand readjustment of the game, it would too expensive and time-consuming. For instance, console gaming may call for re-engineering while PC games would require backward compatibility fixing. Doing this is costly, but failure to readjust would end up dissatisfying the users, who are the main reason of game invention, hence, intellectual property has gone too far.
The proper balance between content producer and the public good is to provide the best services at all times. Coca-Cola Company has been known to be reliable since it was invented. It produces its products keeping the public in mind. It has kept intellectual property a secret because it has a desire always to satisfy their customers with the best services and products at all time. It has gone to an extent of launching ‘Share-a-coke’ where they brand people’s names on the bottle, to make the public desire to drink more of Coca Cola products.
References
Anton, J. J., & Yao, D. A. (2004). Little Patents and Big Secrets: Managing Intellectual Property. RAND Journal of Economics, 1-22.
Bently, L., & Sherman, B. (2014). Intellectual property law. Oxford University Press, USA.
Moser, P. (2007). Why Don't Inventors Patent? (No. w13294). National Bureau of Economic Research.
