Ordinary people come up with new ideas, innovations and inventions and there are people who would steal them for their personal gain. Intellectual property law aims to protect the ideas, innovations and inventions of individuals to prevent individuals from stealing ideas and passing them off as their own for profit. According to Grama (2011), laws recognize three types of intellectual property: patents, trademarks, and copyrights (p. 265). Patents are used to protect inventions such as equipment, designs, processes, etc. Trademarks protect logos, symbols and others used by businesses such as the logos of Apple, Burger King, McDonalds and others. Copyright protects books, works of art, films, music, computer programs and works. When watching movies, whether DVD, VCR or otherwise, there is an FBI warning stating that illegal copyright infringement may be punishable by a fine and/or fine. a prison sentence. Violation of patents and trademarks can also be punished by a fine and/or imprisonment, this is not limited to copyright. A policy will need to be developed and implemented to help prevent potential intellectual property violations within the organization. According to Kim and Solomon (2012), a policy is a written statement from senior management to set a course of action or direction that applies to the entire organization (p. 40). When creating policies to protect the organization, the policy will need to identify to whom it applies. Intellectual property laws are federal laws and apply to everyone working in the organization, managers and senior management are no exception. Even if no company policy is created, federal laws created by the government apply to everyone living in the country. ...... middle of paper ...... be a lesson to all agencies and businesses. Making illegal copies of films and music will not be permitted and employees involved will be fired and reported to the FBI. To prevent this from happening, burning software must be approved by management before being installed or activated on computers.Works CitedBass, D. (August 26, 2010). A government employee kept pirated movies and games on his work computer. Retrieved from http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=6786 Grama, A. (2011). Legal issues in information security. (p. 265).Burlington, MA: Jones & Barlett Learning.Kim, D. & Solomon, M. (2012). Fundamentals of information systems security. (p. 40). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Reinholz, A. (nd). How to report copyright violations. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/how_6712667_report-copyright-violations.html