JOINIntellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.
IP is protected in law by patent, copyright, and trademark law. These laws enable people to earn recognition and/or financial benefit from what they invent or create.
The IP system aims to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish by striking a balance between the interests of creators and the public.
Copyright law
Copyright law (sometimes referred to as authors’ rights in continental legal regimes) is a legal discipline that describes the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works.
Works covered by copyright range from books, journals, articles, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, maps, and technical drawings. The selection and arrangement of data may also be eligible for copyright protection.
Copyright law is the mechanism through which publishing houses are able to manage the content they own and license, and the bundle of rights can be divvied to achieve an appropriate balance of protection (e.g., so that publishers can recover their investment), openness (e.g., for public access), and responsible stewardship of the scientific record (e.g., by enabling right holders to pursue legal remedies for pirated and compromised content.
The Latest from STM
In the Media | Times Higher Education — “Unseen efforts to catch paper mill outputs bear fruit”
In an article on growing threats to research integrity, Times Higher Education covers STM’s report Safeguarding Scholarly Communication: Publisher Practices to Uphold Research Integrity. The article describes how publishers are increasingly focused on identifying integrity issues before publication—responding to paper mills, AI-enabled fabrication, and coordinated fraud networks—while scaling up research integrity teams and collaborating on…
New Report Documents Publisher Investment in Research Integrity Infrastructure
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (January 13, 2026) – A new report, released today, offers the first collective look at the range of approaches scholarly publishers are deploying to tackle threats to research integrity, threats that have evolved in nature and scaled dramatically in recent years. The STM-commissioned report was researched and compiled by research firm Research…
STM supports Copyright Alliance brief in key U.S. copyright case
STM has endorsed an amicus curiae brief filed by the Copyright Alliance in the ongoing U.S. appeals case Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence. The case raises important questions about copyright protection for editorial content — including material similar in nature and function to content produced by STM’s members. The case also presents a set of facts under which the lower court rightly found ROSS’s…
A recap: STM Integrity & Innovation Days 2025
On 9–10 December 2025, STM’s annual Innovation & Integrity Days brought together publishers, startups, funders, researchers and infrastructure providers for two days of focused, cross-sector collaboration in London. Now in its third year (building on the legacy of STM Week), this year’s Innovation & Integrity Days reflected a noticeable shift: more dialogue across traditional boundaries, more…