The Requirement for an Invention in Patent Law provides a critical analysis of legal conceptions of the invention in UK patent law and under the European Patent Convention. Dr Justine Pila brings to this text her extensive experience in intellectual property law.
A central theme of the book is that the requirement for an invention, properly construed, sets the boundaries of the patent system in two ways. The first is by defining the categories of subject matters capable of supporting a patent, and the second is by restricting the protection conferred by a patent to individual subject matters conceived qua inventions. In serving these functions, the requirement for an invention helps to fulfil the public benefit objectives of the patent system by mediating the balance struck by patents between individual patentees and the public.
This book offers an analysis of legal conceptions of the invention in UK patent law and their development from before the first patent legislation of 1623 through the patent system's recent phase of Europeanization. It includes a detailed study of the contemporary (EPC) requirement for an invention and its construction by the European Patent Office, and an analysis of the legal and policy issues which that construction raises. It also places the UK and EPC law in its interpretive context, including its international statutory context, and offers a detailed account of international law-making in the field of patents.
The Requirement for an Invention in Patent Law is an indispensible reference text for students and academics of intellectual property law in general and contemporary patent law in particular, and will appeal to anyone interested in Europeanization, international patent law and harmonization, and the history of the UK patent system. Its elucidation of this complex area also makes it an excellent guide for practitioners.

For most countries, economic development involves a process of "catching up" with leading countries at the time. This is never achieved solely by physical assets and labor alone: also needed are the accumulation of technological capabilities, educational attainment, entrepreneurship, and the development of the necessary institutional infrastructure. One element of this infrastructure is the regime of intellectual property rights (IPR), particularly patents. Patents may promote innovation and catch up, and they may foster formal technology transfer. Yet they may also prove to be barriers for developing countries that intend to acquire technologies through imitation and reverse engineering. The current move to harmonize the IPR system internationally, such as the TRIPS agreement, may thus have unexpected consequences for developing countries.
This book explores these issues through an in depth study of eleven countries ranging from early developers (the USA, Nordic Countries and Japan), and Post World War 2 countries (Korea, Taiwan, Israel) to more recent emerging economies (Argentina, Brazil, China, India and Thailand).
With contributions from international experts on innovation systems, this book will be an invaluable resource for academics and policymakers in the fields of economic development, innovation studies and intellectual property laws.

Stem cell research, and particularly embryonic stem cell research, while offering the prospect of developing theories for serious life-threatening diseases, also raises a number of difficult and controversial moral questions. This is reflected in a variety of moral perspectives and regulatory regimes, already adopted or in the process of being developed, in EU Member States. In particular the "moral exclusion" clause in Article 6 of the EC Directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions has created much uncertainty in this field.
This collection of original essays provides comprehensive analysis of the EU patent system as applied to biotechnological inventions and particularly stem cell research, dealing with the overlapping EPC, EU, international and national law regimes bearing on the exclusion of patents in a morally fragmented and contested field. In this multidisciplinary study, the editors aim to clarify the legal scope of Article 6, which they deem essential for the fostering of research and investment in Europe, while ensuring that such research is conducted within clear ethical limits which address the concerns of society.
As well as a complete overview of the application of the European patent law in the field of human embryonic stem cells, topics covered include legal and philosophical accounts of the boards of the European Court of Justice and European Patent Offices' reasoning in the leading litigated cases, as well as the institutional tensions between national and transnational European research and patent regimes. With its broad research in the fields of patent law, ethics and philosophy, the book analyzes a wide range of issues in a way no other book has previously done and suggests solutions to unblock the current stalemate surrounding the patentability of human embryonic stem cell related inventions. The book will be welcomed by a broad readership, including experts and academics in both ethical and legal disciplines as well as policy makers and regulators in the field of embryonic stem cell research in Europe.

In the United States, human creativity is historically understood to be motivated by economic concerns. However, this perspective fails to account for the reality that human creativity is also often the result of internal motivations having nothing to do with money. This book addresses what motivates human creativity and how the law governing authors' rights should be shaped in response to these motivations.
On a practical level, it illustrates how integrating a fuller appreciation of the inspirational dimension of the creative process will allow us to think more expansively about legal protections for authors. Many types of creators currently lack the legal ability to compel attribution for their work, to prevent misattribution, and to safeguard their work from unwanted modifications. Drawing from a number of diverse sources, including literary, philosophical, and religious works, this book offers real solutions for crafting legal measures that facilitate an author's ability to safeguard his or her work without entirely sacrificing the intellectual property policies in practice in the United States today.

Make sure your school district is legal! Use this authoritative guide to set up and maintain a copyright compliance program. You'll learn how to: define copyright compliance and establish procedures; involve/meet with all stakeholders; write or update a copyright policy; conduct training sessions; develop auditing processes and procedures; and, maintain copyright compliance district-wide. Superintendents, school administrators, teachers, technology coordinators, aides, school boards, and especially library media specialists will find this resource invaluable.

In diesem Buch untersucht die Autorin die patentrechtliche Erschoepfungsdogmatik. Ziel ist hierbei die Behandlung und Loesung zwei verschiedener Fallkonstellationen. In beiden Konstellationen eroeffnet die Anwendung des Erschoepfungsgrundsatzes in seiner bisherigen Fassung dem Patentinhaber die Moeglichkeit, sein Patent zweifach zu verwerten. Der Band stellt deshalb die Frage, ob diese Doppelverwertungsmoeglichkeit mit den Grundsatzen des Patentrechts im Einklang steht und wenn nicht, welche dogmatischen Moeglichkeiten bestehen, um die Doppelverwertungsmoeglichkeit zu unterbinden und ein sachgerechtes Ergebnis zu erzielen. Hierzu werden verschiedene Loesungsvorschlage aus Literatur und Rechtsprechung kritisch begutachtet und weitere Loesungsansatze entwickelt.

The original text of the Constitution grants Congress the power to create a regime of intellectual property protection. The first amendment, however, prohibits Congress from enacting any law that abridges the freedoms of speech and of the press. While many have long noted the tension between these provisions, recent legal and cultural developments have transformed mere tension into conflict. "No Law" offers a new way to approach these debates.
In eloquent and passionate style, Lange and Powell argue that the First Amendment imposes absolute limits upon claims of exclusivity in intellectual property and expression, and strips Congress of the power to restrict personal thought and free expression in the name of intellectual property rights. Though the First Amendment does not repeal the Constitutional intellectual property clause in its entirety, copyright, patent, and trademark law cannot constitutionally license the private commodification of the public domain.
The authors claim that while the exclusive rights currently reflected in intellectual property are not in truth needed to encourage intellectual productivity, they develop a compelling solution for how Congress, even within the limits imposed by an absolute First Amendment, can still regulate incentives for intellectual creations. Those interested in the impact copyright doctrines have on freedom of expression in the U.S. and the theoretical and practical aspects of intellectual property law will want to take a closer look at this bracing, resonant work.

Jo Bac's groundbreaking legal study asks why and how the United States legal system should grant legal personhood to artificial intelligence (AI). This new legal status of AI is visualized as a dependent person, and the AI dependent legal person would be determined by an inextricable connection between AI and a new type of corporate body, introduced here as "AI-Human Amalgamation" (AI-HA). Artificial Intelligence has been defined as one or more computer programs with an ability to create work that is unforeseen by humans. This includes AI capacity to generate unforeseen innovations, patentable inventions, and/or infringe the rights of other patent holders. At present, AI is an entity unrecognized by law. The fact that AI is neither a natural nor a legal person indicates that it cannot be considered the owner of rights or bearer of liabilities. This in turn creates tension both in society and legal systems because questions such as who should hold the rights of AI or be liable for autonomous acts of AI remain unanswered. This book dynamically argues that the AI dependent legal person and AI-HA are necessary to address these new challenges. The creativity and actions of AI and AI-HA would be distinct from those performed by human beings involved in the creation of this amalgamation, such as AI's operators or programmers. As such, this structure would constitute an amalgamation based on human beings and AI cooperation (AI-HA). As a dependent legal person, AI would hold the patent rights to its own inventions, thus ensuring favorable conditions for the incentives of the U.S. patent system. In addition, the proposed legal framework with the use of legislative instruments could address any liability concerns arising from foreseen and unforeseen actions, omissions, and AI's failure to act.

The patent system is criticized today by some practitioners and economists. In fact, there is a partial disconnection between patent demographics and productivity gains, but also the development of actors who do not innovate and who develop business models that their detractors equate with a capture of annuities or a dangerous commodification of patents. This book provides a less Manichaean view of the position of patents in the system of contemporary innovation. It first recalls that these criticisms are not new, before arguing that if these criticisms have been revived, it is because of a partial shift from an integrated innovation system to a much more fragmented and open system. This shift accompanied the promotion of a more competitive economy. The authors show that this movement is coherent with a more intensive use of patents, but also one that is more focused on their signal function than on their function of direct monetary incentive to innovation.

Data collected and distributed on the internet is generally free, non-exclusive, and non-rivalrous. Yet online data is often difficult to access. This book examines the infrastructure for collecting, storing, and distributing data to show how it is embedded behind intellectual property and technological barriers. It proposes that the EU introduce an access and transfer governance right to data that can work in tandem with data protection rules. Chapters explore the subject matter of this protection, potential rights holders and the scope of the protection, and exceptions and limitations under intellectual property law and competition law. Comprehensive and timely, Regulating Access and Transfer of Data, sets the foundations for a new legal system for our data-driven generation.

This handbook challenges the conventional wisdom that intellectual property is the law of creativity. Traditionally, IP has been instrumental for protecting creations of the mind, with only inventors of original works enjoying exclusive rights. Related, sui generis, and quasi-IP rights, which protect monetary investments and efforts rather than originality and inventiveness, were considered exceptions to the general principles of IP. But increasingly, IP rights are being granted to safeguard corporate investments. This handbook brings together an international roster of contributors to explore this emerging trend. Why are investments the primary driver of legal protection, and often the main requirement to obtain it? Who benefits from such new forms of protection? What should the scope of these new rights be? And are they desirable in the first place? In doing so, the volume is the first to highlight and systematically critique the move from 'intellectual' to 'investment' property.

Creativity is at the vanguard of contemporary capitalism, valorised as a form of capital in its own right. It is the centrepiece of the vaunted 'creative economy', the creative industries, and is increasingly a focus of public policy. But what is economic about creativity? How can creative labour become the basis for a distinctive global industry? And how has the solitary artist, a figment of the romantic thought, become the creative entrepreneur of twenty-first century economic imagining? This book offers a fresh approach to this topic within the creative industries through a focus on intellectual property. It follows IP and its associated rights (IPR) through the creative economy, showing how it shapes creative products and configures the economic agency of creative producers. IP helps to manage risk, settle what is valuable, extract revenues, and protect future profits. It is the central mechanism in organising the market for creative goods. Most importantly, it shows that IP/IPR is crucial in the dialectic between symbolic and economic value on which the creative industries depend; IP/IPR hold the creative industries together. This book is based on a detailed empirical study of creative producers in the UK, extending the sociological studies of markets to an analysis of the UK's creative industries. In doing so, it makes an important, empirically grounded contribution to debates around creativity, entrepreneurship, and uncertainty in creative industries, and will be of interest to scholars and policymakers alike.

There has been a continued debate in Europe over whether to change the patentability of software - or so-called computer-implemented inventions - and to follow the US model of allowing software patents. Albeit as European regulation has been stopped in July 2005, this heated debate stays with us for the time being. The European debate has shown a severe lack of empirical analysis on the possible impact of software patenting that goes beyond interest-driven rhetoric. This book seeks to address this shortcoming by taking a two-fold approach. Firstly, a survey of German software companies provides a representative overview of both general strategies to protect inventions and opinions regarding the future IPR regime in the context of innovation strategies - including the importance and use of Open Source software. Secondly, a series of case studies illustrate the varying impacts that patents and other protection strategies can have in specific contexts. foundation as for the economic impacts and policy implications of software patents upon which to base a discussion on how to shape the intellectual property regime for software. Thus, this volume will be of interest to industrial economists and students, as well as legal scientists and analysts and students of governance in innovation systems. It will also appeal to all policy stakeholders dealing with IPR issues and/or software developing industries.

Students and established scholars of intellectual property law often look for historical context when trying to understand the development and present-day contours of IP rules and systems. American Patent Law supplies this context, offering readers a comprehensive account of the evolution of the US patent system and patent doctrine beginning in 1790. From the technologies for harvesting wood and shoemaking in the earliest periods to computer software and biotechnology of the present, each chapter of the book covers the characteristic technologies of each historical era. The book also describes how businesspeople in each era acquired and enforced patents and used patents as the foundation of various business arrangements. This book is a landmark in the history of technologies, the US patent system, and the way private actors have deployed patents across American history.

Students and established scholars of intellectual property law often look for historical context when trying to understand the development and present-day contours of IP rules and systems. American Patent Law supplies this context, offering readers a comprehensive account of the evolution of the US patent system and patent doctrine beginning in 1790. From the technologies for harvesting wood and shoemaking in the earliest periods to computer software and biotechnology of the present, each chapter of the book covers the characteristic technologies of each historical era. The book also describes how businesspeople in each era acquired and enforced patents and used patents as the foundation of various business arrangements. This book is a landmark in the history of technologies, the US patent system, and the way private actors have deployed patents across American history.

Over the past five years, the application of copyright law to distance education using digital technologies has become the subject of public debate and attention in the United States. In the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), Congress charged the Copyright Office with responsibility to study the issue and report back with recommendations within six months. After an intensive process of identifying stakeholders, holding public hearings, soliciting comments, conducting research, and consulting with experts in various fields, the Office has issued this Report. Part I of the Report gives an overview of the nature of distance education today. Part II describes current licensing practices in digital distance education, including problems and future trends. Part III describes the status of technologies relating to the delivery and protection of distance education materials. Part IV analyzes the application of current copyright law to digital distance education activities. Part V discusses prior initiatives addressing copyright and digital distance education. Part VI examines the question of whether the law should be changed, first summarizing the views of interested parties and then providing the Copyright Office's analysis and recommendations.

It is not easy to prevent others from using your ideas or information for gain unless you use the sophisticated and esoteric legal techniques of intellectual property law.Copyright, which is especially important, is a form of protection afforded to many different types of work. Copyright protection for literary work is well known, and this regime also applies to musical and artistic works, broadcasts, sound and video recordings and typographical arrangements."An Introduction to Intellectual Property," an introduction to topics in intellectual property law by the unusual method of using moots, mock trials, questions and answers and essays, is not a textbook. It serves to interest the inquisitive without going into the deep law of IP. It will certainly encourage the reader to read an IP textbook and help students when faced with a decision to choose the subject for study.

This book is the first in-depth and longitudinal study of the history of copyright protecting the visual arts. Exploring legal developments during an important period in the making of the modern law, the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, in relation to four themes - the protection of copyright 'authors' (painters, photographers and engravers), art collectors, sitters and the public interest - it uncovers a number of long-forgotten narratives of copyright history, including views of copyright that differ from how we think today. As well as considering the distinct nature of the contribution of copyright to the history of the cultural domain accounted for by scholars of art history and the sociology of art, this book examines the value to lawyers and policy-makers today of copyright history as a destabilising influence: in taking us to ways of thinking that differ from our own, history can sharpen the critical lens through which we view copyright debates today.

This volume provides an in-depth analysis of the relationship between intellectual property rights (including patents, trade marks, copyright, and designs) and the law of the European Union. It examines the conflict between intellectual property rights (exclusive rights limited normally to the territory of a single Member State) and the principle of free movement of goods and services in the internal market. The various tests and theories propounded by the European Court of Justice in attempting to resolve that conflict are explained from a critical standpoint. The ramifications of the exhaustion-of-rights principle are explored and chapters of this volume are devoted to trade marks, patents, and copyright. Finally, the volume examines the limitations on the exercise of intellectual property rights as a result of EC competition law.
Volume 2 will cover EU legislation which has harmonized intellectual property law and created unitary intellectual property rights such a the Community trade mark.

The Internet Age has dramatically increased the importance of intellectual property rights. Disputes over domain names, shared music files, spam and cybersquatting are only a few examples of the matters now prominent in the news.

Mark V.B. Partridge, a seasoned lawyer who advises major corporations on these issues everyday, explains in the articles collected in "Guiding Rights" the laws and principles shaping these important rights. Partridge's writing is clear and direct, emphasizing the fundamental principles that provide a firm foundation for the core concerns of copyright and trademark law. He also shares practical tips gleaned from many years of experience on how to avoid pitfalls and achieve success in litigation. By avoiding legalese or detailed statutory construction, Partridge quickly identifies the key points necessary for anyone desiring a better understanding of the law guiding the rights of authors, business and entrepreneurs on the Internet.

Lawyers and non-lawyers alike will profit from this useful collection.

Nach der "Stufentheorie" erhielt Design als "angewandte Kunst" nur bei "deutlichem UEberragen der Durchschnittsgestaltung" Urheberrechtsschutz. Mit dem "Geburtstagszugs-Urteil" gab der Bundesgerichtshof diese Theorie auf und setzte das Schutzniveau fur angewandte Kunst mit dem der rein bildenden Kunst gleich. Die Autorin untersucht, ob dies gerechtfertigt ist - insbesondere mit Blick auf die Vorgaben der Europaischen Union fur Urheber- und Designrecht. Sie analysiert das aktuelle Schutzniveau von Design nach den neuen Schutzkriterien des Bundesgerichtshofs. Dabei beleuchtet sie die praktischen Folgen fur den Schutz und die Nutzung von Design. Zuletzt eroertert sie Alternativen fur den urheberrechtlichen Schutz von Design, auch mit Blick auf die Rechtslage in Frankreich und Grossbritannien.

Technological and economic concerns have long been the drivers of debate about copyright. But diverse disciplines in the humanities - including literary studies, aesthetics, film studies, and the philosophy of art - have a great deal to offer if we wish to establish a more nuanced and useful conception of copyright and authorship. This volume brings together scholars from a range of disciplines to explore the challenges inherent in translating aesthetics and creativity studies to concepts of copyright, especially as longstanding approaches are troubled by the rise of the digital.

A complete guide to the complex procedures that govern this dynamic topic, this one-volume resource features expert commentary along with practical guidance on protecting intellectual property rights using U.S. trade laws. It also includes helpful information on U.S. trade remedies affecting intellectual property rights.
Featured topics include:
- Unfair trade practice remedies under Section 337of the Tariff Act of 1930
- Customs Service enforcement against counterfeit goods and goods that infringe trademarks, trade names, and copyrights
- "Gray market" or Parallel goods
- The enforcement of intellectual property rights under international trade agreements

This book comprehensively discusses the effects of digital technology on the way work is disseminated and the resulting challenges concerning the fair use of copyright. It also analyzes so-called fairness by examining theories on the system of fair use, demonstrating the "system changes that will be brought about by technological changes" from the perspective of economics, i.e., the problem of modification faced by the system of fair use of copyright. Exploring the nature and function of fair use and repositioning the fair use system, the book proposes a better design for China's system of limitation on copyright and a readjustment of the copyright system. Lastly, in addition to analyzing the reconfigurations of fair use from an economic standpoint, the book describes in detail the interactions between legal systems and cultures.