[OT] - does IP exist?

[Steven Schveighoffer]

"Yigal Chripun" wrote
> Lars Ivar Igesund wrote:
>
>>
>> Wow, bad example. Copying a chair is indeed illegal and proven to be so 
>> in
>> court. Take the Stressless chair by Ekornes as an example.
>>
>
> are you sure you can put copyright on chairs? that sounds very strange
> to me. I don't know the details of your example, but are you sure it
> isn't about patent law rather than copyright law?
> i.e the original creator patented some design idea (which is
> information) and so the restriction is on that design idea rather than
> the chair itself. you cannot copy the chair only as a consequence.

You cannot copyright physical entities.  You can patent them.  However, I 
think you can trademark the shape/design of something (like the shape of the 
coke bottle).  You can copyright the design of the chair, but then you would 
have to have the design of the chair published (which would be somwhat 
uncommon).  And even then, someone could copy the design if they understood 
the meaning of it.  Remember, copyright protects the raw content of media, 
not the meaning of the content.

The lawsuit I found with this company involves trademark infringement.

-Steve