This book considers the effectiveness of well-known trade mark protection at an international level. It particularly considers EU trade mark law from Japanese perspectives, and provides a practical and critical overview of trade mark law in Japan, including the historical development of the law and the recent development on cases and policy. The book includes detailed coverage of the Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Act, and contains the first systematic analysis of Japanese jurisprudence and legislative amendments of law in relation to well-known trade marks and unfair competition. The book goes on to comparatively analyse Japanese trade mark law alongside that of the European Community Trade Mark system. The book critically considers the difficulties in comprehensively defining a 'well-known trade mark' in the relevant international trade mark instruments. In breaking down the traditional definition of the 'well-known trade mark', the book works to address existing theoretical ambiguities in the application of trade mark law.

Economists advise that the law should seek efficiency. More recently, it has been suggested that common law systems are more conducive of economic growth than code-based civil law systems. This book argues that there is no theory to support such statements and provides evidence that rejects a 'one-size-fits-all' approach. Both common law and civil law systems are reviewed to debunk the relationship between the efficiency of the common law hypothesis and the alleged inferiority of codified law systems. Legal Origins and the Efficiency Dilemma has six aims: explaining the efficiency hypothesis of the common law since Posner's 1973 book; summarizing the legal origins theory in the context of economic growth; debunking their relationship; discussing the meaning of 'common law' and the problems with the efficiency hypothesis by comparing laws across English speaking jurisdictions; illustrating the shortcomings of the legal origins theory with a comparative law and economics analysis; and concluding there is no theory and evidence to support the economic superiority of common law systems. Based on previous pieces by the authors, this book expands their work by including new areas of analysis (such as trusts), detailing previous analysis (such as French law versus common law in the areas of contract, property and torts), and updating for recent developments in the academic discourse. This volume is of interest to academics and students who study microeconomics, comparative law and foundations of law, as well as legal policy analysts.

Considering the steady increase in intellectual property rights in the last century, does it make sense to speak of 'user's rights' and can limitations on intellectual liberty be justified from a rights-based perspective? This book philosophically defends the importance of the public domain and user's rights through the use of natural-rights thought. Utilizing primarily the work of John Locke, it contends that considerations of natural justice and human freedom impose powerful constraints on the proper reach and substance of intellectual property rights, especially copyright. It investigates both the internal and external natural-rights constraints on intellectual property, and argues in particular for the importance to human freedom of the right to intellectual liberty - the right to inform one's actions by learning about the world. It concludes that respect for fundamental freedom-based interests require a balanced approach to the scope, strength and duration of intellectual property rights.

The Logic of Innovation examines not merely the supposed problem of the efficacy and relevance of intellectual property, and the nature of innovation and creativity in a digital environment, but also the very circumstances of that inquiry itself. Social life has itself become a sphere of production, but how might that be understood within the cultural and structural transformation of creativity, innovation and property? Through a highly original interlocutory and therapeutic approach to the issues in play, the author addresses the concepts of innovation and the digital by means of an investigation through literature and the imagination of new scenarios for language, business and legal reform. The book undertakes a complex inquiry into innovation and property through the wonder of Alice's journeys in Wonderland and through the Looking-glass. The author presents a new theory of familiar production to account for the kinship that has emerged in both informal and commercial modes of innovation, and foregrounds the value of use as crucial to the articulation of intellectual property within contemporary models of production and commercialization in the digital.

Patenting Lives includes contributions from various interests and perspectives, both in the context of current international developments in life patents and the global agenda of harmonization of international intellectual property. The book is divided into five sections reflecting the critical issues arising from patents and biotechnology - Context; Human Rights and Ethical Frameworks; Medicine and Public Health; Traditional Knowledge; and Agriculture. The international contributors from government, civil society, academia and the private sector provide diverse perspectives on life patents and the facilitation of social, cultural and economic development in the context of international principles of trade.

This book draws on a wide selection of interdisciplinary literature discussing complex adaptive systems - including scholarship from economics, political science, evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and religion - to apply general complexity tenets to the institutions, conceptual framework, and theoretical justifications of the copyright system, both in the United States and internationally. The author argues that copyrighted works are the products of complex creative systems and, consequently, designers of copyright regimes for the global 'information ecosystem' should look to complexity theory for guidance. Urging legal scholars to undertake empirical studies of real-world copyright systems, Tussey reveals how the selection of workable configurations for the copyright regime is larger than that encompassed by the traditional, entirely theoretical, debate between private property rights and the commons. Finally, this unique study articulates how copyright law must tolerate certain chaotic elements that may be essential to the sustainability of complex systems.

This book critically reviews the recurrent debate on Intellectual Property law and policy in developing countries carried out in the last decade. It identifies the still unresolved policy issues and proposes alternative approaches that resonate with the needs for transformation of the economic and social reality of developing countries. Focusing on emerging economies in Asia, the work draws the wider lessons to be learnt by researchers, policy makers, legislators and the business sector in general and concludes by putting forward proposals for reform.

Are intellectual property rights like other property rights? More and more of the world's knowledge and information is under the control of intellectual property owners. What are the justifications for this? What are the implications for power and for justice of allowing this property form to range across social life? Can we look to traditional property theory to supply the answers or do we need a new approach? Intellectual property rights relate to abstract objects - objects like algorithms and DNA sequences. The consequences of creating property rights in such objects are far reaching. A Philosophy of Intellectual Property argues that lying at the heart of intellectual property are duty-bearing privileges. We should adopt an instrumentalist approach to intellectual property and reject a proprietarian approach - an approach which emphasizes the connection between labour and property rights. The analysis draws on the history of intellectual property, legal materials, the work of Grotius, Pufendorf, Locke, Marx and Hegel, as well as economic, sociological and legal theory. The book is designed to be accessible to specialists in a number of fields as well as students. It will interest philosophers, political scientists, economists, legal scholars as well as those professionals concerned with policy issues raised by modern technologies and the information society.

As long as there have been fans, there has been fan fiction. There seems to be a fundamental human need to tell additional stories about the characters after the book, series, play or movie is over. But developments in information technology and copyright law have put these fan stories at risk of collision with the content owners' intellectual property rights. Fan fiction has long been a nearly invisible form of outsider art, but over the past decade it has grown exponentially in volume and in legal importance. Because of its nature, authorship, and underground status, fan fiction stands at an intersection of key issues regarding property, sexuality, and gender. In Fan Fiction and Copyright, author Aaron Schwabach examines various types of fan-created content and asks whether and to what extent they are protected from liability for copyright infringement. Professor Schwabach discusses examples of original and fan works from a wide range of media, genres, and cultures. From Sherlock Holmes to Harry Potter, fictional characters, their authors, and their fans are sympathetically yet realistically assessed. Fan Fiction and Copyright looks closely at examples of three categories of disputes between authors and their fans: Disputes over the fans' use of copyrighted characters, disputes over online publication of fiction resembling copyright work, and in the case of J.K. Rowling and a fansite webmaster, a dispute over the compiling of a reference work detailing an author's fictional universe. Offering more thorough coverage of many such controversies than has ever been available elsewhere, and discussing fan works from the United States, Brazil, China, India, Russia, and elsewhere, Fan Fiction and Copyright advances the understanding of fan fiction as transformative use and points the way toward a safe harbor for fan fiction.

Africa is playing an increasingly more significant role in the domain of international intellectual property law, and this book underlines the contributions made by African countries as a group to the development of the current international IP system. It examines in detail their breakthrough proposals and initiatives at the WTO, WIPO and WHO with regard to IP and public health; IP and traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources; IP and biodiversity; and exceptions and limitations to copyright. Using Botswana, Burundi, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia as examples, it examines the systems under which these IP subject matters are protected. From a regional perspective, the book also analyses some initiatives taken by ARIPO, OAPI and the African Union to protect traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, especially in relation to protection of the rights of local farming communities and breeders, regulation of access to biological resources, genetically modified organisms and the proposed establishment of the new Pan-African Intellectual Property Organization (PAIPO). Demonstrating how Africa is now an active player on the international IP scene, this book will be invaluable to those interested in intellectual property law, business and commercial law, and African and international law.

As information flows become increasingly ubiquitous in our post digital environment, the challenges to traditional concepts of intellectual property and the practices deriving from them are immense. The romantic understanding of the lone author as an endless source of new creations has to face these challenges. In order to do so, this work presents a collectivist model of intellectual property rights. The core argument is that since copyright works enjoy profit from significant public contribution, they should not be privately owned, but considered to be a joint enterprise, made real by both the public and author. It is argued that every copyright work depends on and is reflective of the author's exposure to externalities such as language, culture and the various social events and processes that occur in the public domain, therefore copyright works should not be regarded as exclusive private property. The study takes its organizing principle from John Locke, defining and proving the fatal flaw inherent in debates on copyright: on the one hand the copyright community is eager to arm authors with a robust property right over their creation, while on the other this community totally ignores the fact that the exposure of the individual to externalities is what makes him or her capable of creating material that is copyrightable. Just as Locke was against the absolute authority of kings, the expressed view of the study is against the exclusive right an author can claim.

This comprehensive, three-volume set reprints the most important published articles in an area that is attracting increasing controversy - the political economy of intellectual property rights. Christopher May - a leading authority in the field - has selected material that provides important insights on the global governance of intellectual property. This will be essential reading for anyone wishing to come to grips with the major policy issues emerging in the new millennium. Professor May has also provided an introduction that will serve as an authoritative and comprehensive guide to the main issues under discussion. This three-volume set will be an invaluable reference source for scholars and practitioners seeking an in-depth understanding of the main issues in this important field.

Lipton considers the balance between trademark policy, free speech and other pressing interests in domain names, such as privacy and personality rights and cultural and political interests.

First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Mass digitization of texts, images, and other creative works promises to unprecedentedly enhance access to culture and knowledge. With the electronic 'library of Alexandria' having started to materialize, a number of legal and policy issues have emerged. The book develops an extended conceptual account of the ways in which mass digital projects challenge the established copyright norms through the wholesale copying of works, their storage in cloud environments, and their automated processing for purposes of data analytics and text mining. As individual licensing is not compatible with the mass scale of these activities, alternative approaches have gained momentum as effect of judicial interpretation, legislative initiative and private-ordering solutions. This book queries the normative and policy implications of this newly emerging framework in copyright law. Adopting a cross-jurisdictional perspective, it concludes that lack of clarity as to the scope of authorial consent does not only bear the risk of legal uncertainty, but can also lead to the creation of new and not readily transparent monopolies on information and knowledge. In this respect, a new regulatory framework is outlined drawing from the insights developed in areas of law where the concept of consent in the use of data has been thoroughly elaborated. Illustrating how mass digitization unveils a number of unsettled theoretical issues within copyright, the book builds a sophisticated case that digital repositories in the mass digital age should be and remain fully-fledged public goods to the benefit of future generations.

In a rapidly changing world, the underlying philosophies, the rationale and the appropriateness of patent law have come under question. In this insightful collection, the authors undertake a careful examination of existing patent systems and their prospects for the future. Scholars and practitioners from Japan, the US, Europe, India, Brazil and China give detailed analyses of current and likely future problems with their respective systems, and outline possible responses to them.With detailed and extensive contributions, this book will greatly appeal to students, practitioners, policymakers and academics who are interested in the problems of current patent system in the world and their future. Contents: T.G. Agitha, G. Carmichael, S. Elahi, Y. Futoshi, N.S. Gopalakrishanan, K. Karachalios, J.P. Kesan, M.A. Lemley, C. McGinley, K. Motohashi, N. Nakayama, C. Neppel, Y. Omori, Z. Ping, B. Rutz, R. Shimanami, V. Yumy Mitsuuchi-Kunisawa

Engaging and innovative, User Generated Law offers a new perspective on the study of intellectual property law. Shifting research away from the study of statutory law, contributions from leading scholars explore why and how self-regulation of intellectual property rights in a knowledge society emerges and develops. Analyzing examples of self-regulation in the intellectual property law-based industries such as collective management of copyrights and patent rights, open source licenses, domain name law and enforcement of intellectual property rights, this book evaluates to what extent user generated law is an accurate model for explaining and understanding this process. It also considers its interaction with the framework conditions of the statutory law upon which it is built and the subsequent redefinition of legal positions for affected parties. With its original stance on understanding and construing intellectual property law, User Generated Law will appeal to students and scholars studying in this area as well as in legal governance and legal theory. Its evaluative approach also lends itself to policy makers and practitioners. Contributors include: O. Kokoulina, B. Lundqvist, M.J. Madison, T. Minssen, C.S. Petersen, T. Riis, O.-A. Rognstad, J. Schovsbo, S.F. Schwemer, H. Udsen, E. van Zimmeren

Intellectual property (IP) rights impact innovation in diverse ways. This book critically analyses whether additional rights beyond patents, trademarks and copyrights are needed to promote innovation. Featuring contributions from thought-leaders in the field of IP, this book examines the check and balances that already exist in the IP system to safeguard innovation and questions to what extent existing IP regimes are capable of catering to new paradigms of innovation and creativity. Taking a multi-angled view of the topic, this book questions whether IP rights by definition encourage innovation and explores the role of exceptions and limitations to IP rights as well as the application of competition law to promote innovation. Chapters analyse diverse topics within the field of IP such as plant varieties protection, geographical indications and 3D printing. Taken as a whole this book advocates that a pro-innovation rationale must be applied when new IP legislation is designed. This book will be an engaging source of information for researchers and policy-makers with an interest in the direction of IP legislation and the promotion of innovation. It will also be relevant for scholars of competition law who are seeking information on the relationship between competition and IP.

While franchising promotes economic and social welfare objectives, Elizabeth Crawford Spencer argues that monitoring and regulation are needed to address potential areas of abuse of the form that can result in costly market inefficiencies. This unique study surveys franchise-specific legislation worldwide as a starting point for a thorough examination and analysis of the role of both private and public regulation of the sector in the context of current theoretical approaches to regulating contractual relationships. The book concludes that properly calibrated regulation can minimize inefficient allocations of power and risk and lead to maximum economic and social benefits by promoting the development of small business, enabling the growth of entrepreneurial skills, and facilitating economic well-being and independence among SMEs.This comparative survey will prove to be invaluable for academics in franchising marketing, management, law and practice. The Regulation of Franchising in the New Global Economy will also appeal to franchise law practitioners, consultants, policymakers and those wishing to influence policy on all sides of the debate in the many jurisdictions that are engaging in the processes of adopting, or reviewing, franchise regulation.

Advanced technology has resulted in the proliferation of all kinds of popular symbols and illustrations; but sorting out which are protected by the law, and which are merely familiar scribbles can be a confusing and laborious task. This question is answered, as well as many others about contemporary trademark law, in this accessible guide by Timothy Wherry. Information seekers are directed through the process of verifying that a trademark is registered, and given a history of the trademark and important trademark court cases. A useful FAQ section answers some common questions about trademarks. Wherry's work also includes useful listings of U.S. and international trademark classifications, and is a fitting tool for entrepreneurs, librarians, and law students alike.

Patents are powerful weapons in a company's legal arsenal, with both defensive and offensive capabilities. Patents protect a company's innovation from potential infringers, while at the same time support the company's efforts to exploit their innovation commercially in the global marketplace. This book explores the role of patents in today's knowledge economy. We discuss how patents have become a valuable commodity and have a lucrative market of their own. However, to profit from patent monetization, this Patent market must be closely linked to the R&D market and the Product Market.This book offers a systematic approach to patent deployment to maximize profits beginning with data collection from patent, journal and business sources. Readers will be guided through analyses of the patent landscape to identify traps and opportunities for commercialization. This book argues that patents must be aggregated into portfolios to maximize their effectiveness and value in the modern economy. With strong patent portfolios, companies can be engaged in licensing and more sophisticated business models like forming patent alliances and collaborating with IP intermediaries. Finally, the book will provide an overview of the various ways of valuing patents and suggest some simplified approaches for management to value the company's patents.

This work gives an overview of the current state of the law of unfair competition for the protection of the intellectual creations and industrial assets in the EU, the USA and other major Anglo-American jurisdictions. Despite the growing interest in this area of law in recent years, little attention has been given to the varying legal and economic paradigms that underlie and shape it. This need for a comparative, theoretical examination is heightened by the advent of the information age, coupled with the desire to integrate markets. These developments pose a challenge to the current regimes of intellectual property protection since these are increasingly becoming out of step with the paradigms that shaped the traditional patent, copyright and trademark regimes. In this work, the author explores the alternative to a protective regime based on unfair competition doctrines, and examines the themes of economic justification, shaping legal boundaries, finding a legal justification, practical application, and harmonization of national laws.

Arising from recent developments at the international level, many developing countries, indigenous peoples and local communities are considering using geographical indications (GIs) to protect traditional knowledge, and to promote trade and overall economic development. Despite the considerable enthusiasm over GIs in diverse quarters, there is an appreciable lack of research on how far and in what context GIs can be used as a protection model for traditional knowledge-based resources. This book critically examines the potential uses of geographical indications as models for protecting traditional knowledge-based products and resources in national and international intellectual property legal frameworks. By analysing the reception towards GIs from developing countries and advocates of development in the various legal and non-legal regimes (including the World Trade Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, and the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Food and Agricultural Organization), the book evaluates the development potential of GIs in relation to ensuing changes in international intellectual property law in accommodating traditional knowledge. Teshager W. Dagne argues for a degree of balance in the approach to the implementation of global intellectual property rights in a manner that gives developing countries an opportunity to protect traditional knowledge-based products. The book will be of great interest and use to scholars and students of intellectual property law, public international law, traditional knowledge, and global governance.

The effective management of knowledge assets is a key requirement for securing competitive advantage in the emerging information economy. Yet the nature of knowledge assets, however, remains poorly understood. In this new work, Max Boisot provides a conceptual framework for managers and students that will help them explore and understand how knowledge and information assets differ from physical assets, and how to deal with them at a strategic level within their organizations.

Contemporary patent law continues to struggle with the most basic questions of patent system design. There is fierce debate over the power of the Patent Office, the role of the courts, incentives to guide the process and many other fundamental issues. Professor Miller brings together seminal articles which are acknowledged to be the proper foundations for these ongoing debates. This indispensable collection of papers is vital for patent policy makers and serves as an excellent reference source for anyone with an interest in the topic.