[pp.int.general] The real ‘party with a difference’

[Richard Stallman]

    Dear Nicolas, glad you liked that column. IPRs are a very live issue in
    India,

With all due respect, I believe you are mistaken.  It is a mistake to say
anything using the term "IPR" because that is not a valid concept.

Patents are a live issue in India, but it is a grave error to describe
patents as "IPRs".  Copyrights have also been an issue, but it is a
grave error to describe copyrights as "IPRs".  Saying that "IPRs are a
live issue" is a mistake, because it assumes that "IPRs" are "an issue".

Patents and copyrights do totally different things, so to understand
them we need to treat them as two separate issues.  Treating them as
one issue is confusion.  And that's not to mention trademarks and the
other laws which that term lumps together.

For the sake of promoting clear thinking about patents, and clear
thinking about copyrights, would you please join me in rejecting
terms such as "IPR" which lump them together?

See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html for more
explanation of this point.