IP (Was: "C-level")

[Baker, John]

        "IP," as an abbreviation for intellectual property, has been around a few years.  I think it began, and to a significant extent remains, as a legal term.  Lawyers who specialized in the area got tired of being called patent lawyers, when they also had other important responsibilities.  The earliest use of IP I see is from a 1984 seminar outline on Westlaw:  Practising Law Institute PLI Order No. B4-6688 September 18, 1984 Seventh Annual Institute for Corporate Counsel: Acquisitions and Divestitures ACQUISITION AND DIVESTITURE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Evelyn M. Sommer:

        >>As used herein, intellectual property includes
1. Patents
2. Trademarks
3. Copyrights
4. Trade Secrets
5. "Technology" = know how

        ....

        B. Role of Counsel for Acquiring Company
1. Merger situation--little direct responsibility
2. Acquisition situation--
a). Letter of intent or preliminary agreement--require statement that seller will transfer or license (royalty free?) all IP necessary to continue the business.
b) Similar clause in Final Agreement in order to cover any "forgotten" IP<<

        Note that "intellectual property" is carefully defined, while "IP" is used in only one place in the outline, without definition, even though lawyers frequently define obvious abbreviations.  I take this to mean that "IP" was an informal term that the writer used inadvertently.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of James A. Landau
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 3:38 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "C-level"


I don't recall seeing this term before, and now discover it twice in the
March 1, 2004 issue of Computerworld.

Page 4:  "And where a company puts its "IP", as business folks dub
intellectual property, therin lies corporate power, justifying the C-lvel title and a
fancy-schmancy office.  With the arrival of software as a service, the breadth
of IP under a CIO's wing is shirnking."

[clip]

I was also unaware of the meaning given above for "IP"

      - James A. Landau