The journal IDEA serves as a law journal for the Franklin Pierce Law Center and was originally broadly directed to the problem of interfaces of law, science, technology, medicine and the creative arts, generally. Issued quarterly, it has served as a major medium of communication and is also available for the work of individual scholars. IDEA is devoted to the publication of scientific-legal research regarding the principles, the facts, and the practical operations of the patent, trademark, copyright and related systems of the United States and other countries. It has been calculated efficiently to educate and inform across broad fields the general reader and those with special interests from business, industry, the sciences and the professions with respect to the functioning of these systems. It is dedicated to convey to this readership the relation of the systems to industrial and social progress.