Abstract

The relevance of Intellectual Property protection to our day to day activities has been repeatedly shown to be a settled matter. Humanity seems bent on creating a world economy primarily based on goods and services that take no material form or shape. And just as nature of property changes, so is the system of its exploitation. This paper looks at the evolution, nature and scope of the traditional fields of Intellectual Property Law that seek to protect the rights of inventors and authors to control or exclude others from unauthorised exploitation of their mental creations. The body of laws that evolve to provide this protection has unequivocally developed in to essential jurisprudence that is necessary for economic advance of the developed and more especially the developing countries. Although intellectual property systems vary from one national system to another, the basic principles of intellectual property law and practice seem to be the same in a number of ways, and thus, the paper attempts a general overview of the concepts and issues involved in this branch of law as well as the myriad of functions they strive to serve. It has been shown that the indispensable nature of intellectual property make it imperative to all stakeholders to work towards a healthy intellectual property system that will provide access to knowledge , experience and expertise that results to mutual benefit to all.

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