My business partner wants to trademark phrases that have been used in our cultural community for generations, saying it's just protecting our brand, but I feel like we'd be claiming ownership over something that belongs to all of us. We can't agree on whether intellectual property rights should apply to cultural expressions that predate any individual business.
More people experience this than they realize.
Two people must navigate the tension between legal rights to protect their work and moral obligations to collective cultural heritage.
“Where Are You with Rights — their origin and their limits?”
If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.