Over the years, the value of intellectual property has grown tremendously and it is now a vital element to both business and telecom entrepreneurs. Intellectual property is typically referred to as a number of different types of creations which have a set amount of rights under law.

In fact, under intellectual property laws, owners are given certain rights to a multiple elements including musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs.

Some of the most common types of intellectual property rights include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets. Currently in the United Sates, intellectual property is utilized to provide absolute protection to creators, as they are now legally entitled to optimize every available value added option of their inventions.

Without intellectual property guidelines set in place from the very beginning of an organization, a large company can unknowingly leverage something owned by another person or firm and be forced to pay a large amount of money in fines.

Criticism of intellectual property regulations come from all sides, especially The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which recognizes that "conflicts may exist between the respect for and implementation of current intellectual property systems and other human rights.”

At this year’s ITEXPO (News - Alert) East 2012 in Miami, Fla., Mark Hewitt sat down with TMCNet and delved deep into this topic and what it means overall for the telecom industry. Hewitt is chairman and CEO of MetroCore Holdings, where he focuses on the need to develop open broadband networks, as well as assist both communities and developers in establishing economic and community ecosystems. The full video can be found above.

Last Year, Hewitt was named Cambridge Who’s Who Professional Man of the Year in Technology and Systems Consulting due to his professional accomplishments, academic achievements, leadership abilities, year of service, and his credentials.