We'll begin with technology. As you may have discovered already, there exists on the Internet a bewildering array of materials that try to explain how the Internet itself functions. We have sifted though those materials and arranged the most accurate and concise of them under five headings. The law of intellectual property, unfortunately, is at least as complex as Internet technology. In the United States, it encompasses six reasonably distinct fields of doctrine, each with its own rules and procedures.
Patent law provides a shorter but even more powerful set of protections to inventions.
Trademark law protects words and symbols used by one company to differentiate its products or services from those of other companies. If, after you have explored the content of these six bodies of doctrine, you are curious about where they came from or how they are justified, you might wish to consult two essays by Professor Fisher. The first consists of a brief history of intellectual-property law in the United States .