Author: Silver Lake Publishing

ISBN: 1-56343-745-7

The following review was contributed by: Penny Watkins:  CLICK HERE  to read more of Penny's Reviews

I don’t know where we’ll be at the end of the 21^st century, but at its beginning we are living in the media age, in a global, information-driven economy.  Information used to be power; now it’s everything. 

We also live in an egalitarian age as far as information goes.  Anybody can access information, and anybody can contribute information.  And anybody can access—and misappropriate—anybody else’s information.

The Value of a Good Idea addresses the issues of how to protect intellectual property—basically, information—from misappropriation and misuse.  It gives a basic understanding of what intellectual property is, and why it is so difficult to protect and regulate something so intangible.  Then the authors discuss the “most commonly recognized types of intellectual property,” copyrights, trademarks and patents.  Finally they discuss other issues involving intellectual property, including trade secrets.

The Value of a Good Idea is clearly written and easy to follow.  The authors explain the laws for each point and illustrate them with examples of actual legal cases.  They clearly explain how each point applies to the individual or company who needs to protect their intellectual property.

The book is a bit dense for casual reading, but is accessible to laypeople.  It’s a wonderful reference and a good tool for helping the reader negotiate the pitfalls of doing business in an information driven economy.