INTRODUCTION.

Intellectual property can be defined as those rights that are meant to protect an entity's inventions, book authorship, arts, industrial designs, trademarks and trade secrets. ABA. (2010). These rights are derived from the intellectual property laws that include patent, copyright and trademark.

How can you protect your IT product or service idea?

Understand the nature of the idea or IT product that you seek to protect. Can the idea be protected by utility patent? If yes then compile a disclosure of the IT product in the form of a written description. This disclosure should clearly illustrate how the IT product/idea works, how it can be executed, and what improvement does the new invention bring in that specific sphere of influence. Singh, Y. (2012).

It is important to clearly outline the date of conception of your idea or IT product. Patent law dictates the importance of proving the date of invention and the date that you practically and successfully tested the idea- a process usually referred to as ‘actual reduction practice'. Witnesses play a vital role in this process as they'll testify the fact that the process of actual reduction to practice was successfully accomplished on a certain day. Keep written records on the date the idea was invented and when it was put into practice.
Keep your idea or IT product confidential, don't unnecessarily disclose it to anyone around, if you have to disclose, then disclose in confidence. Obtain a written confidential disclosure agreement form the individual to whom you disclose the idea. The agreement should clearly show that the person intents to keep your idea confidential.

Another significant way of protecting your IT product or idea is by keeping it as a trade secret. This means keeping the mechanism, tools, formula, process that culminated to the conception of the idea a secret such that no one else can design that product.
What are the consequences if you do not take the legal procedure required to protect your IT product or service idea?
For instance, if you have a domain name without its federal trademark registration, there is the possibility of the risk that some of other entity with a registered trademark may already have registered that exact domain name. This can bar you from using that domain name.

Without having made use of the statutory notice for a registered trademark, you can't possibly deter other people and business entities from using your idea or business product. This means that you can't sue for infringement rights, other damages or profits.

Failure to take the legal procedures to protect one's idea or product incapacitates the owner in the sense that they can't protect other entities from stealing or copying your unique inventions, products design, and the brand of your product. Turner, J. D. C. (2010).
Search and discuss if there is any difference between IT products and other products in terms of legal protection issues.

Food products have a quite unique nature of protection policy. For instance, the European Union has designed three legal protection policies informed by the geographical setting within which these products come from. Traditional Specialties Guaranteed (TSG), Protected Design of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) are the basic trademarks in the European Union that protect the quality and brand of agricultural products from the region.

The most distinctive difference between IT products and other products in regard to legal protection issues lies within the realms of the fact that Intellectual property law specifically protects rights of property deemed to be intangible. On the other hand, other property laws seek to protect rights of properties deemed to be physical or tangible. Progoff et al. (2012).

Other observable differences are seen on the nature of the various intellectual property rights and what they specifically protect.
Patents are basically meant for inventions. This geared towards ensuring that the idea or product is remains safe with the inventor and that other entities are prevented from employing, selling or practicing similar products. This law gives the owner of the idea the right to make, use and sell originally qualifying product of invention. In regard to IT products, software patents play a significant role in protecting salient features of a program that can't be possibly protected under laws of copyright and trade secrets.

Trademarks are used to identify the source of commodity/idea or a service. A trademark helps to develop and distinguish commodities from those of another producer. Inventors and entrepreneurs in general use trademarks to protect their inventions, brand and products from infringement. A good example is the Nike tick for Nike products.

The term ‘Copyright' refers to an Intellectual property right that seeks to protect original artistic works such as music, sound records, literary works, photography, films and broadcasts. This right comes into effect as soon as that product is created.

It is a general rule that you should cite your reference sources when you are borrowing ideas from other authors. Why is this important and what are the consequences if you do not cite your reference sources?

Referencing demonstrates that the writer is well read and is proficient in researching and analyzing existing works. This is an added advantage to their work because it will be perceived to be well detailed and articulated. This may help a scholar attain a good mark in their work.

Citing sources depicts the responsibility of a researcher who is keen enough to identify, acknowledge and give credit for the work of other authors. Citing help avoid the possibility of doing plagiarized work. Referencing enables the reader to track down the academic sources that a writer/researcher has used for further reading and understanding of concepts. Russell, C. (2012).

Some of the consequences for failing to effectively cite one's work include suspension from an academic institution or even being sued in court for plagiarism-this may attract prison sentence.

There are technical tools to help in detecting plagiarism. Can such tools be used to detect borrowed ideas? If yes, give examples.
There exist a good number of plagiarism detection tools such as the Grammarly plagiarism checker, Articlechecker, Plagium, PlagiarismDetect, Duplichecker, Doc Cop and Viper. These tools help detect plagiarism within someone's text, collision I.e. checking similarity between two papers. Some of these tools such as Plagium work in several languages. Stech, M. T., Anderson, J. E., & WIPO. (2010).

Can you use the research paper written by you for a previous class as a reference for your current research? Why or why not?

Yes I can. However, it's important that I acknowledge and cite the works of my previous research basically because I intend to avoid the possibility of self-plagiarism that is defined by the American Psychological Association as the practice of presenting own ideas as if they were new.

Is this considered self-plagiarism? What is meant by self-plagiarism?

The act of using a research paper that has been previously written by same author as a reference in a current research-without citing the previous work, is termed as self-plagiarism. It is clearly evidenced by the significant overlap of different publications in a single piece of work.

Self-plagiarism basically refers to the act of reusing a whole or part of previously disseminated work by the original author without specifically indicating the reference of the previous work in the current dissemination. Most common forms of self-plagiarism include but not limited to; duplicate publication, segmented publication and redundant publication. Ciulla et al. (2014).

As a desktop help desk support specialist, you discovered a new way to prevent hackers from breaking into company networks while working for a telecommunication company. Is it ethical for you to sell your discovery to an IT security company without the permission from your employer? Why or why not?

I should thoroughly look into all prior employment agreements including but not limited to confidentiality and invention agreements between me and my employer. Qu. (2012). Technology oriented companies have a specific employee agreement that dictates the employees to assign all inventions, creations and other possible intellectual properties to their employee. If I came up with a new idea in my current job as I was executing my roles at the work place, then that idea may be termed as my employee's in regard to the existing inventions agreement with my employer. Therefore, I should seek the permission of my employer.

How can employers protect their legal rights?

Employers can protect their legal rights by taking the following course of actions;

Seeking the intervention of a federal court.

By making known, their legal rights to their employees. This will deter possible ignorance and infringement on their rights.
A very reliable way that employers protect their legal rights is through use of employee monitoring (the act of an employer to monitor employees' behaviors and actions during the official working hours). Progoff et al. (2012). Employers are generally concerned with monitoring their employees' code of conduct to ensure that it results into increased productivity of the company's brand, besides ensuring their ideas, inventions and trade secrets are kept confidential.