Think of intellectual property as Noise: The more the Better.

So you don't believe?
Well, to most people, when the topic of intellectual property is mooted, they will usually withdraw from giving any opinion or worse, they feign total ignorance. The reason I found out was because intellectual property is a heavy word. Certainly they did not learn it in school. And they probably first come across it reading the news papers. But being the less intellectual types, they probably will not go any further to find the actual meaning from the dictionary (small dictionaries usually don't have the term). Asking Mom or Pop about the meaning probably gets them a vague answer. So as time past, people will just grab the meaning from thin air. And it is usually the wrong one.

Soon enough, they will knock unto a story in the news that some big shot is suing somebody for 'infringing their intellectual property', and since it is a good talking point, the topic was passed around at the coffee table. There, more opinions was traded, but still, no body knows exactly what is that infringement thing is all about. Then, someone asked in a toned down voice does illegal downloads get tracked by big brother? Obviously they were referring to stories of illegal downloads of music as intellectual property infringements. Now, the number piles up here. Big companies filing suits against small little guys for stealing their music (and videos as well). This is noise to be sure, and the bigger it is, the better! People like to add to the noise and want to be in the know. But seriously, when asked what is intellectual property infringement, nobody knows exactly what it is. These things are best left to your lawyers!

And not any lawyers at that, only intellectual property attorneys know what is intellectual property infringements. So for the rest of us, intellectual property means being sued for something. Intellectual property itself don't mean anything. But because of these high profile cases, like the case of Microsoft suing people for using pirated software, and the fact that average Joe could be a victim, people learn more about what constitutes an intellectual property. And being hauled to court for infringement makes a big noise. The bigger the noise, the better the topic, and lives goes on.