According to Inside Higher Ed, there are many reasons to be optimistic about the growing definition of what fair use of copyrighted material means in the academic world. As universities adopt new technologies for the storage and delivery of information, the shifting understanding of what fair use means is very important to administrators and faculty alike.

In the technology industry, intellectual property rights can be lucrative. This is evident from the success of the biggest tech companies, and from how often they face lawsuits from patent assertion entities. It's recently been reported that one of the giants will be selling its mobile patent portfolio.

The Motion Picture Association of America recently submitted a list to the U.S. Trade Representative of the virtual and physical destinations that enable the most copyright infringement. The industry organization is concerned that there are too many active websites willfully enabling intellectual property infringement.

According to Info World, the Innovation Act of 2013 has bipartisan support, and many in the tech industry are excited about the impending vote on it in Congress. Others have concerns, however. Here are some features of the bill that are causing excitement in the intellectual property world:

In the modern global economy, intellectual property rights are a potential source of revenue for businesses all over the world. They are often more valuable to companies than physical assets integrated throughout operations. With that said, the UN Commission on International Trade Law and the World Intellectual Property Organization have been working since 2003 to modernize procedures around using intellectual property as a security for business financing, according to Managing Intellectual Property.

Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that has provided simple licenses to people for many types of work since 2001, recently issued a statement outlining its position on copyright law. The easy-to-understand system has seen success online, where Creative Commons licenses can be found attached to materials as diverse as single songs and full-fledged software applications. Some argue that its success means copyright law functions perfectly well in the digital age and needs no changes. However, Creative Commons is offering an alternative to traditional copyright law, which is the source of its success.

According to the National Law Review, 50 to 80 percent of all intellectual property theft currently originates in China. It's estimated that U.S. firms operating in China have lost $48.2 billion in sales, royalties and licensing fees as a result of  infringement within their host country. 

As Twitter prepares to open itself to public investors, there are several factors giving financial analysts pause. One of these is Twitter's approach to intellectual property - the company owns a total of just nine patents. In contrast to Twitter, Facebook had 774 patents prior to its own IPO. Twitter's corporate philosophy is to allow developers and designers to retain more comprehensive control of their creations. 

The RIAA, MPAA and a number of internet services providers are members of the Center for Copyright Information. This is an initiative that attempts to educate consumers about appropriate means to enjoy entertainment material online while preserving the intellectual property rights of content producers. According to CCI's most recent tax filing - available for public inspection - the membership dues from content publication organizations and internet service providers totaled nearly $2 million for 2011.

A small but vocal number of entrepreneurs have asserted they do not need to patent their ideas and inventions, contending that ideas are universal and can't really be registered as any one person's property. However, as Entrepreneur magazine points out, despite the universal nature of ideas, their research, development and creation are the work of individuals.