Thinking about your death isn't easy, but it's even harder to consider the consequences of not thinking about it. Failing to execute a will or set up a trust could burden your heirs beyond just grief at your passing, leaving them to deal with your incomplete affairs as well.

Stephen L. Smith, a longtime attorney with thirty-five years of experience in estate planning, seeks to take the mystery out of what can often be an intimidating process. Using this guide, you can learn how to understand the differences between wills and trusts; evaluate attorneys and tax advisers; empower yourself to direct the planning process; and maximize the money and assets that get passed to others.

Whether you have a large estate or a modest one, it's important to engage in estate planning to make your wishes known. Take control of the process by arming yourself with the knowledge in "Taking the Mystery out of Estate Planning."

Exclusions from Patentability reviews the history of the adoption of exclusions from patentability under the European Patent Convention since its first conception in 1949 through to its most recent revision. The analysis shows how other intellectual property treaties, such as UPOV, the Strasbourg Patent Convention, PCT, the EU Biotech Directive and TRIPS have affected the framing of the exclusions. Particular attention is given to those exclusions considered the most contentious (computer programmes, discoveries, medical treatments, life forms and agriculture) and those decisions which have been most influential in shaping the approaches by which the exclusions have been interpreted. The 'morality' exclusion and the interpretation of the exclusions are discussed critically and suggestions for coherent interpretation are made.

Intellectual property issues in the film industry are often highly complex and in today's world are evolving rapidly. In this second edition of Film Copyright in the European Union, Pascal Kamina unravels the complexities of film protection in twenty-eight member states of the European Union, including thirteen new member states who have joined since the first edition. As well as addressing key aspects of film copyright, Pascal Kamina also deals with the protection of film works within the European Union in the context of European harmonisation of copyright laws. Including a new chapter on copyright enforcement, this second edition details the substantial developments in EU law during the last decade, including major cases for the European Court of Justice, new treaties and new directives. This book will interest practitioners, academics and students. The developments on contracts and moral rights will be of particular interest to lawyers outside continental Europe.

In recent times, commercial activities of companies exercising market power through their intellectual property rights have increasingly come under the scrutiny of the EU competition authorities. Intellectual Property and Competition Law: New Frontiers looks at how the leveraging strategies of Microsoft, the patent enhancement strategies of Astra Zeneca and Rambus, and the reverse payment settlements in the pharmaceutical sector have all attracted competition intervention, and how the courts have been forced to decide whether intellectual property issues are the primary subject matter of the case, or peripheral to that.
Drawing on these judgments, and others, this timely book brings together leading figures from practice and from academia who examine the increasingly complex and often strained relationship between intellectual property and competition law. Focusing primarily on EU law, but with valuable insight into US law, they highlight areas where new frontiers are emerging in the interface between the two, including; refusal to grant access to trade secrets; the new product test in consumer welfare; competition law in the pharmaceutical sector; standard setting; and FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory terms) commitments. The book also considers the way in which the Commission's proposed changes to the application of Article 102 EC may impact on the protection of intellectual property rights.
In the post-Microsoft litigation era, this timely book captures the range of current thinking on the subject. The impressive list of contributors brings together leading figures from academia and practice, from intellectual property and competition law, and from law and economics, offering unrivalled expert analysis of this complex area.

This volume explores the nature of intellectual property law by looking at particular disputes. All the cases gathered here aim to show the versatile and unstable character of a discipline still searching for landmarks. Each contribution offers an opportunity to raise questions about the narratives that have shaped the discipline throughout its short but profound history. The volume begins by revisiting patent litigation to consider the impact of the Statute of Monopolies (1624). It continues looking at different controversies to describe how the existence of an author's right in literary property was a plausible basis for legal argument, even though no statute expressly mentioned authors' rights before the Statute of Anne (1710). The collection also explores different moments of historical significance for intellectual property law: the first trade mark injunctions; the difficulties the law faced when protecting maps; and the origins of originality in copyright law. Similarly, it considers the different ways of interpreting patent claims in the late nineteenth and twentieth century; the impact of seminal cases on passing off and the law of confidentiality; and more generally, the construction of intellectual property law and its branches in their interaction with new technologies and marketing developments. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the development of intellectual property law.

This book results from a conference held in Singapore in September 2009 that brought together distinguished lawyers and economists to examine the differences and similarities in the intersection between intellectual property and competition laws in Asia. The prime focus was how best to balance these laws to improve economic welfare. Countries in Asia have different levels of development and experience with intellectual property and competition laws. Japan has the longest experience and now vigorously enforces both competition and intellectual property laws. Most other countries in Asia have only recently introduced intellectual property laws (due to the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement) and competition laws (sometimes due to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund or free trade agreements). It would be naive to think that laws, even if similar on the surface, have the same goals or can be enforced similarly. Countries have differing degrees of acceptance of these laws, different economic circumstances and differing legal and political institutions. To set the scene, Judge Doug Ginsburg, Greg Sidak, David Teece and Bill Kovacic look at the intersection of intellectual property and competition laws in the United States. Next are country chapters on Asia, each jointly authored by a lawyer and an economist. The country chapters outline the institutional background to the intersection in each country, discuss the policy underpinnings (theoretically as well as describing actual policy initiatives), analyse the case law in the area, and make policy prescriptions.

This book looks at questions and answers pertaining to the organization, usage, and ownership of information in the Internet age-and the impact of shifting attitudes towards information ownership on creative endeavors. In the competing traditions of Marshall McLuhan and Langdon Winner, authors Aaron Barlow and Robert Leston take readers on a revealing tour of the Internet after the explosion of the blogosphere and social media. In the world Beyond the Blogosphere, information has surpassed its limits, the distinction between public and private selves has collapsed, information is more untrustworthy than it ever was before, and technology has exhibited a growth and a desire that may soon exceed human control. As Langdon Winner pointed out long ago, "tools have politics." In an eye-opening journey that navigates the nuances of the cultural impact the internet is having on daily life, Barlow and Leston examine the culture of participation in order to urge others to reconsider the view that the Internet is merely a platform or a set of tools that humans use to suit their own desires. Provocative and engaging, Beyond the Blogosphere stands as a challenge on how to rethink the Internet so that it doesn't out-think us.

In recent years, Intellectual Property Rights - both in the form of patents and copyrights - have expanded in their coverage, the breadth and depth of protection, and the tightness of their enforcement. Moreover, for the first time in history, the IPR regime has become increasingly uniform at international level by means of the TRIPS agreement, irrespectively of the degrees of development of the various countries. This volume, first, addresses from different angles the effects of IPR on the processes of innovation and innovation diffusion in general, and with respect to developing countries in particular. Contrary to a widespread view, there is very little evidence that the rates of innovation increase with the tightness of IPR even in developed countries. Conversely, in many circumstances, tight IPR represents an obstacle to imitation and innovation diffusion in developing countries. What can policies do then? This is the second major theme of the book which offers several detailed discussions of possible policy measures even within the current TRIPS regime - including the exploitation of the waivers to IPR enforcement that it contains, various forms of development of 'technological commons', and non-patent rewards to innovators, such as prizes. Some drawbacks of the regimes, however, are unavoidable: hence the advocacy in many contributions to the book of deep reforms of the system in both developed and developing countries, including the non-patentability of scientific discoveries, the reduction of the depth and breadth of IPR patents, and the variability of the degrees of IPR protection according to the levels of a country's development.

The threats of economic espionage and intellectual property (IP) theft are global, stealthy, insidious, and increasingly common. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, IP theft is estimated to top $250 billion annually and also costs the United States approximately 750,000 jobs. The International Chamber of Commerce puts the global fiscal loss at more than $600 billion a year.
Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost offers both a fascinating journey into the underside of the Information Age, geopolitics, and global economy, shedding new light on corporate hacking, industrial espionage, counterfeiting and piracy, organized crime and related problems, and a comprehensive guide to developing a world-class defense against these threats. You will learn what you need to know about this dynamic global phenomenon (how it happens, what it costs, how to build an effective program to mitigate risk and how corporate culture determines your success), as well as how to deliver the message to the boardroom and the workforce as a whole. This book serves as an invaluable reservoir of ideas and energy to draw on as you develop a winning security strategy to overcome this formidable challenge.
-It's Not "Someone Else's" Problem: Your Enterprise is at Risk
Identify the dangers associated with intellectual property theft and economic espionage
-The Threat Comes from Many Sources
Describes the types of attackers, threat vectors, and modes of attack
-The Threat is Real
Explore case studies of real-world incidents in stark relief
-How to Defend Your Enterprise
Identify all aspects of a comprehensive program to tackle such threats and risks
-How to Deliver the Message: Awareness andEducation
Adaptable content (awareness and education materials, policy language, briefing material, presentations, and assessment tools) that you can incorporate into your security program now

Most employeers are astounded at how easily and quickly their proprietary information can get out of their control. In a large number of cases, theft of trade secrets often involves employees leaving a company to start their own business or work for a direct competitor.
Nearly all books that address the topic of trade secrets have the spy vs. spy perspective. The author approaches the topic from a practical business perspective and not simply creating paranoia for paranoia s sake. The material for this book comes from the author s extensive work experience as a computer forensics consultant and manager on numerous theft of trade secrets cases.
No-nonsense solutions to the most common intellectual property problems facing security managers, computer security professionals, corporate legal counsel, and human resource managersSample agreements and forms that address specific business needsCoverage of threats ranging from physical security lapses to hackers to social engineering"

This book is an essential tool for understanding the range of IP investment strategies - and how companies unlock value and profit from it. It provides a valuable tutorial for businesspeople, entrepreneurs, analysts, and dealmakers seeking better to understand, with clear examples, the components of different IP categories and their value-creating applications.

The Study Group on a European Civil Code has taken upon itself the task of drafting common European principles for the most important aspects of the law of obligations and for certain parts of the law of property in movables which are especially relevant for the functioning of the common market. Like the Commission on European Contract Law's Principles of European Contract Law, the results of the research conducted by the Study Group on a European Civil Code seek to advance the process of Europeanisation of private law. Among other topics the series tackles sales and service contracts, distribution contracts and security rights, renting contracts and loan agreements, negotiorum gestio, delicts and unjustified enrichment law, transfer of property, and trust law. The principles furnish each of the national jurisdictions a grid reference. They can be agreed upon by the parties within the framework of the rules of private international law. They may provide a stimulus to both the national and European legislator for moulding private law. Beyond this, they aim to further discussion about the creation of a European Civil Code, or a Common Frame of Reference in the area of patrimonial law, by submitting a concrete model. The Principles of European Law are published in co-operation with Bruylant (Belgium), Sellier. European Law Publishers (Germany) and Staempfli Publishers Ltd. (Switzerland).

The late Jim Harris' theory of the science of law, and his theoretical work on human rights and property, have been a challenge and stimulus to legal scholars for the past twenty-five years. This collection of essays, originally conceived as a festschrift and now offered to the memory of a greatly admired scholar, assesses Harris' contribution across many fields of law and legal philosophy. The chapters are written by some of the foremost specialists writing today, and reflect the wide range of Harris's work, and the depth of his influence on legal studies. They include contributions on topics as diverse as the nature of law and legal reasoning, rival theories of property rights and their impact on practical questions before the courts; the nature of precedent in legal argument; and the evolving concept of human rights and its place in legal discourse. With a foreword by the Honourable Justice Edwin Cameron, this volume celebrates the life and work of Jim Harris

This new book provides a comprehensive overview of the topic of patent claim interpretation in the UK and in three other select jurisdictions. It explores territory that has great commercial significance and yet is severely under-explored in existing works. The twin issues of the function of patent law and interpretational analysis of the scope of protection have been recently reconsidered by the House of Lords, and this work not only reviews their recent cases but also looks at how the US, German and Japanese patent systems deal with the complex problems presented in this area. The book provides a balanced approach between practical, academic and theoretical approaches to claim interpretation. In doing so it provides more than a simple case analysis, as it enables the reader to consider the shape that the law should take rather than simply recounting the current position. Its novelty therefore lies in bringing the theoretical elements of the discussion together with the view of the profession charged with creating the patent documentation in the first place and then viewing this in the light of the detailed comparative studies. It is only by considering all of these elements that we begin to see a pathway for the development of the law in this area. This is a work that will be an important source of reference for academics and practitioners working in the field of patent law. Shortlisted for the 2008 Young Authors Inner Temple Book Prize

Winner of the second SLS Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship 2010. Fiduciary Loyalty presents a comprehensive analysis of the nature and function of fiduciary duties. The concept of loyalty, which lies at the heart of fiduciary doctrine, is a form of protection which is designed to enhance the likelihood of due performance of non-fiduciary duties, by seeking to avoid influences or temptations that may distract the fiduciary from providing such proper performance. In developing this position, the book takes the novel approach of putting to one side the difficult question of when fiduciary duties arise in order to focus attention instead on what fiduciary duties do when they are owed. The issue of when fiduciary duties arise can then be returned to, and considered more profitably, once a clear view has emerged of the function that such duties perform. The analysis advanced in the book has both practical and theoretical implications for understanding fiduciary doctrine. For example, it provides a sound conceptual footing for understanding the relationship between fiduciary and non-fiduciary duties, highlighting the practical importance of analysing both forms of duties carefully when considering fiduciary claims. Further, it explains a number of tenets within fiduciary doctrine, such as the proscriptive nature of fiduciary duties and the need to obtain the principal's fully informed consent in order to avoid fiduciary liability. Understanding the relationship between fiduciary and non-fiduciary duties also provides a solid foundation for addressing issues concerning compensatory remedies for their breach and potential defences such as contributory fault. The distinctive purpose that fiduciary duties serve also provides a firm theoretical basis for maintaining their separation from other forms of civil obligation, such as those that arise under the law of contracts and of torts.