The fact that creations of the human mind exclusively belong to their creators is not a matter of course. In the ancient world, for example, copyright was unheard of. That idea evolved much later. Today we are confronted with a nearly impenetrable network of national, international, and Community regulations, all of which deal with one central issue: what creative accomplishments (whether artistic, inventive, economically exploitable) should be protected and what should be the scope of application of the creator’s/inventor's rights? The protection sought by the originator is always pitted against the general public’s interest in unrestricted access to information and knowledge. An extremely complex system of provisions and exceptions has evolved from that polarised situation – a network of standards, indicating by its very name, “intellectual property law”, that this is all about the protection of intellectual, i.e. immaterial, goods.