The involvement of the Institute of European Studies of Macau (IEEM) in matters of intellectual property is based on annual conferences that take up topical issues of intellectual property from a comparative perspective with a particular focus on Asia and Europe. The first of these conferences was held back in 2000, and has meanwhile become an annual event complemented by an Intellectual Property School and IP Master Classes. All three venues serve as a platform for academic teaching and discussion on intellectual property awareness and the proper place and function of intellectual property law in the context of society and public interest.

Aurora Plomer explores international human rights, and its relevance to battles over intellectual property and science. Her work highlights the need for the benefits of scientific research to be fairly and equitably shared. Her work is an important original contribution to the literature on intellectual property, human rights, and the sociology of science.' - Matthew Rimmer, Queensland University of Technology, Australia'This remarkable book highlights and analyzes the inherent tensions and complementarities of patents with access to science, as materialized in the most prominent international human rights agreements. A must-read for anyone interested in one of the most crucial and debated questions of intellectual property, examined here from the perspective of its fascinating but complex interactions with human rights.' - Christophe Geiger, University of Strasbourg, France 'The relationship between patents, human rights and science raises fundamental questions for innovation and for access to the benefits of scientific endeavour. Yet the complexities of the underlying science and legal environment in which it operates cannot be underestimated. Aurora Plomer deftly navigates this terrain with great clarity and skill. The resulting book is timely, accessible and a thorough scholarly work that demystifies and throws new light on the interface between science and the law.' - Duncan Matthews, Queen Mary University of London, UK The new millennium has been described as 'the century of biology', but scientific progress and access to medicines has been marred by global disputes over ownership of the science by universities and private companies. This book examines the challenges posed by the modern patent system to the right of everyone to access the benefits of science in international law. Aurora Plomer retraces the genesis and evolution of the key Articles in the UN system (Article 27 UDHR and Article 15 ICESCR). She combines the historiography of these Articles with a novel perspective on the moral foundations of rights of access to science to draw out implications for today's controversies on patents in the life-sciences. The analysis suggests that access to science as a fundamental right requires both freedom from political and religious interference and the existence of enabling research institutions and educational facilities which promote the flow of knowledge through transparent and open structures. From this perspective, the global patent system is shown to fail spectacularly when it comes to the human rights ideal of universal access to science. The book concludes that a fundamental restructuring of patent institutions is required, in which democratic oversight of patent policies would ensure meaningful realization of the right of everyone to access the benefits of science. Students and scholars of international law, particularly those focusing on intellectual property and human rights, will find this book to be of considerable interest. It will also be of use to practitioners in the field.

The comprehensive guide to all the essential legal and business considerations to be taken into account in structuring and negotiating technology-driven corporate alliances. Readers are provided with a clear and concise introduction to the nature and scope of the legal rights relating to new technologies and a framework for evaluating prospective business partners and for identifying the key contracting issues. An indispensable resource for consummating licensing, research and development, manufacturing and distribution, and corporate partnering arrangements, as well as managing relationships with university researchers and raising capital for research activities.

Entrepreneurs, executives, technology managers, lawyers, accountants and researchers will benefit from the step-by-step approach to each technology-driven transaction, beginning with the description of the law of technology and intellectual property; continuing with the initial investigation of the technology which is to be the subject of the transaction and the general contractual components of any transaction; and ending with the essential elements of each relationship, including permitted uses of the technology, compensation, representations and warranties, covenants, closing conditions, indemnification, and the procedures for ensuring that the technology remain a valuable asset for each party. The book covers each of the stages involved in developing, manufacturing, licensing, distributing, and financing technology-based products and will serve as an invaluable and constant resource in making sure that all of the important issues have been considered before the deal is sealed.

Nobody likes today's copyright law. Widespread unauthorized use of copyright material proliferates with impunity, while citizens and users protest that intrusive copyright and related rights law stifle cultural expression. Equipment manufacturers and intermediaries complain about yet more 'security' features that complicate their products and services and encumber marketing, while content owners desperately want enforcement to work. And of course it is crucial that whatever regulatory instruments come into play must not age prematurely in Internet time. The European Union faces the daunting challenge of articulating coherent copyright policies that satisfy these contradictory multiple demands. Yet the legal framework must conform to the European Union's remit of fostering economic growth in a common market, while respecting the national traditions of its still growing family of Member States. Clearly, an extraordinary balancing act is called for if justice is to be done to all of the private and public interests affected. So how has the European acquis communautaire scored on these issues so far? In this groundbreaking study the Institute for Information Law of the University of Amsterdam brings its extensive academic expertise to bear on this question. The authors scrutinize the present law as laid down in the seven copyright and related rights directives, against the background of the relevant international standards of the Berne Convention, the TRIPs agreement, and the WIPO Internet Treaties. They map out in detail the degree to which certain areas of copyright have been harmonized as they expose the gaps and inconsistencies in the acquis and the urgent unresolved issues that persist. They identify the EU's ambitions in relation to its present and future competences (following the Lisbon Reform) to regulate copyright, and to its Better Regulation agenda. Following a comprehensive analysis of almost two decades of regulatory intervention, they move on the salient current trends that point toward a more coherent and balanced European copyright law. This book will be welcomed by all those interested or involved in the regulation of copyright and related rights law. Legal scholars, academic and research institutions, corporate counsel, lawyers, government policymakers, and regulators - all these and more will benefit enormously from the profound analysis presented here.

The Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (also known as the Istanbul Convention) was adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 7 April 2011. The Convention entered into force on 1 August 2014 and has currently been ratified by 22 states. This Convention constitutes a crucial development as regards the movement to combat gender-based violence, as it sets new legally binding standards in this area. This book provides a detailed analysis of the Convention and its potential to make an impact in relation to the specific issue of domestic violence. The book places the Istanbul Convention in context with regard to developments relating to domestic violence as a human rights issue. The background to the adoption of the Convention is examined, and the text of this instrument is analysed in detail. Comparative analysis is engaged in with reference to the duties that have been placed on states by other bodies such as the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the European Court of Human Rights. Comparisons are also drawn with the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women and with the relevant provisions of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. An in-depth examination of the advantages of the adoption of the Istanbul Convention by the Council of Europe is provided along with a detailed analysis of the challenges faced by the Convention. The book concludes with a number of brief reflections in relation to the question of whether the adoption of a UN convention on violence against women may be a possible development, and the potential such an instrument holds, in the context of domestic violence.

It may be said that the beauty of art comes from the struggle that is involved in creating it: struggle to hear the voice, struggle to understand the voice, struggle to express or articulate the voice, struggle to let others hear the voice, and struggle to protect what has been expressed. This book is about the last struggle--to legally protect what has been expressed by appreciating the struggle that has come before. The Legal and Moral Rights of All Artists is a clear, jargon-free explanation of the crucial concepts every artist needs to know, such as copyright, trademark, work-for-hire and other contract issues, as well as the all-important doctrine of moral rights. Drawing on the historical perspective of the artist as the core element of any created work, this book explains the protection available to artists, not only for their works but also for their vision, integrity, and reputation. Filled with anecdotes and practical advice, this book will be an important resource for everyone involved in the creative process.

The legislative process is complex, encompassing a variety of aims and outcomes. Some norms and rules are embodied in law because we are simply expected by government to follow them. Others are there for entirely different reasons. A legislator may wish to send messages about what constitutes desirable behaviour, to demonstrate government's ability to deal with a local and short-term issue or to distract the electorate from other crises. Law is often, though not always, designed as a means to an end. Taking a sociological and empirically-based approach, this book offers a rare insight into the real processes by which lawmakers attempt to influence (or fail to influence) human behaviour. This account of the legislative process in Westminster rests on the author's observations and discussion with key players from the standpoint of an academic adviser on research to the department responsible for family law-making (originally the Lord Chancellor's department, then the Department for Constitutional Affairs and now the Ministry of Justice) and draws on her longstanding involvement in and knowledge of the processes of law-making. Documenting the little understood processes that occur in Whitehall, in particular how ministers, advisers and officials work together, it reveals a quite different picture from that of the rational lawmaker imagined in textbooks. Instead what emerges is an empirically-based view of the aims and functions of statute law including the different forms and relevance of symbolic legislation and a realistic view of what law aims to accomplish and what can be done in practice.

The book investigates competition law and international technology transfer in the light of the TRIPS Agreement and the experience of both developed and developing countries. On that basis, it draws relevant implications for developing countries.Tu Thanh Nguyen argues that technology transfer-related competition law should be ?glocalized? appropriately for the needs of local contexts, while intellectual property rights (IPR) are globalized. The book reveals that developing countries, according to the TRIPS Agreement, have the right to use domestic competition law to promote access to technology in order to protect national interests and consumer welfare. However, competition law is antitrust. It is neither anti-IPR nor anti-trade. The author finds that developing countries with limited competition law resources should set realistic priorities for the control of technology transfer-related anti-competitive practices. They can reasonably apply and adapt relevant regulations, decisions and judgments from developed country jurisdictions to their own circumstances.Competition Law, Technology Transfer and the TRIPs Agreement is a timely resource for postgraduate students, practitioners, and scholars in international competition law, IPR, and technology transfer. Policymakers in the field of technology transfer-related competition law/policy, especially in developing countries, will also find this book invaluable.

When infringement or wrongdoing is alleged against a corporation, where are we to look for the imputed reprehensible conduct or knowledge on which the case must depend? This is a question that is asked and asked again as each expansion and intensification of corporate activity gives rise to ever more complex issues of accountability and responsibility. This theoretical study builds on classic and recent work in the field to provide a systematic and coherent analysis of corporate liability in its current context. Focusing on rules of attribution developed in a notable series of English cases, the author explains in detail the various ways in which these rules may be applied in civil, criminal, and regulatory proceedings against corporate defendants. The book exposes the circumstances in which corporations, as legal persons, may incur personal liability for the acts or omissions of their servants or agents that were carried out in the course of their employment, defining the means through which corporate liability must be determined. It focuses on the personal liability of corporations, incorporating common law principles of vicarious liability and agency as well as exceptions arising from the Companies Act 1985 and other legislation. The study covers such important areas as the following: the "problem of many hands," in which individual servants or agents may be aware of only a portion of a corporate transaction or undertaking; the traditional "directing mind" theory as one of the means of identifying the relevant individuals whose conduct or state of knowledge may result in corporate liability; the development of "principles of attribution" as a framework for approaching different situations where liability may be established against corporations; a new concept of "aggregation" which allows, under particular circumstances, the collective knowledge of various individuals to be attributed to the corporation; the relevance of "Chinese Walls" in limiting the extent to which principles of attribution apply; and a comprehensive survey of the different circumstances in which corporations, including holding corporations in corporate groups, and their servants and agents may incur liability. This title is more than a mere legal device for practical purposes. It is rigorously based on the theoretical foundations of corporations, particularly the all-important interplay between the individualistic and collective aspects of the corporate persona.

Since the introduction of the European Unfair Contract Terms Directive (UCTD), there have been far-reaching developments in the digital landscape which have significantly altered the nature of consumer contracts. This timely book examines the changes that have taken place since the advent of the UCTD and analyses the challenges that they pose for consumers entering online standard form contracts today. Illuminating the ways in which digital technology has revolutionised markets and caused a growing number of traders to transition to online business models, Unfair Contract Terms in the Digital Age assesses how the modern contracting landscape adversely impacts consumers. Chapters explore the manifold risks of digitalisation, addressing issues from the lack of transparency of website terms and conditions to the new reach of mass market operators exerting control over European consumers. Against the backdrop of this digital transformation, the book evaluates the key features of the UCTD, questioning whether the Directive can adequately protect Europe's online consumers and counter the perils of unfair terms in standard form contracts. This cutting-edge book is an invaluable resource for scholars and students of consumer law, regulation, and public policy. Policy-makers in EU institutions will also benefit from its assessment of unfair terms law in the digital era.

Winner of the 2010 T.R. Fehrenbach Book Award Cowboys are an American legend, but despite their ubiquity in history and popular culture, misperceptions abound. Jacqueline M. Moore casts aside romantic and one-dimensional images of cowboys by analyzing the class, gender, and labor histories of ranching in Texas during the second half of the nineteenth century. As working-class men, cowboys showed their masculinity through their skills at work as well as public displays in town. But what cowboys thought was manly behavior did not always match those ideas of the business-minded cattlemen, who largely absorbed middle-class masculine ideals of restraint. Moore explores how, in contrast to the mythic image, from the late 1870s on, as the Texas frontier became more settled and the open range disappeared, the real cowboys faced increasing demands from the people around them to rein in the very traits that Americans considered the most masculine. Published in Cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University.

A long-awaited history that promises to dramatically change our understanding of race in America, What Comes Naturally traces the origins, spread, and demise of miscegenation laws in the United States - laws that banned interracial marriage and sex, most often between whites and members of other races. Peggy Pascoe demonstrates how these laws were enacted and applied not just in the South but throughout most of the country, in the West, the North, and the Midwest. Beginning in the Reconstruction era, when the term miscegenation first was coined, she traces the creation of a racial hierarchy that bolstered white supremacy and banned the marriage of Whites to Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and American Indians as well as the marriage of Whites to Blacks. She ends not simply with the landmark 1967 case of Loving v. Virginia, in which the Supreme Court finally struck down miscegenation laws throughout the country, but looks at the implications of ideas of colorblindness that replaced them. What Comes Naturally is both accessible to the general reader and informative to the specialist, a rare feat for an original work of history based on archival research.

There are two oppositional narratives in relation to telling the story of indigenous peoples and minorities in relation to globalization and intellectual property rights. The first, the narrative of Optimism, is a story of the triumphant opening of brave new worlds of commercial integration and cultural inclusion. The second, the narrative of Fear, is a story of the endangerment, mourning, and loss of a traditional culture. While the story of Optimism deploys a rhetoric of commercial mobilization and "innovation," the story of Fear emphasizes the rhetoric of preserving something "pure" and "traditional" that is "dying." Both narratives have compelling rhetorical force, and actually need each other, in order to move their opposing audiences into action. However, as Picart shows, the realities behind these rhetorically framed political parables are more complex than a simple binary. Hence, the book steers a careful path between hope rather than unbounded Optimism, and caution, rather than Fear, in exploring how law functions in and as culture as it contours the landscape of intellectual property rights, as experienced by indigenous peoples and minorities. Picart uses, among a variety of tools derived from law, critical and cultural studies, anthropology and communication, case studies to illustrate this approach. She tracks the fascinating stories of the controversies surrounding the ownership of a Taiwanese folk song; the struggle over control of the Mapuche's traditional land in Chile against the backdrop of Chile's drive towards modernization; the collaboration between the Kani tribe in India and a multinational corporation to patent an anti-fatigue chemical agent; the drive for respect and recognition by Australian Aboriginal artists for their visual expressions of folklore; and the challenges American women of color such as Josephine Baker and Katherine Dunham faced in relation to the evolving issues of choreography, improvisation and copyright. The book also analyzes the cultural conflicts that result from these encounters between indigenous populations or minorities and majority groups, reflects upon the ways in which these conflicts were negotiated or resolved, both nationally and internationally, and carefully explores proposals to mediate such conflicts.

This book examines the practice of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as it stands today in the context of matrimonial disputes and for providing gender justice for women undergoing matrimonial litigation. ADR is a fairly recent but increasingly prevalent phenomenon that has significantly evolved due to the failure of the adversarial process of litigation to provide timely resolution of disputes. The book explores the merit and demerit of traditional litigation process and emergence, socio-legal framework, work environment and success rate of various ADR processes in general and for resolving matrimonial disputes in particular. It comprehensively discusses the role of various institutions and attitudes and perceptions of ADR practitioners. It analyzes the influence of patriarchal cultural assumptions of appropriate feminine behaviour and its effect on ADR practitioners like mediators and counsellors that leads to the marginalization of aggrieved woman's issues. With a brief analysis of the experience and challenges faced with the way the ADR process is conducted, the focus is on probing the vulnerability of aggrieved women. The book critiques the practice of ADR as it is today and offers constructive ways forward by providing suggestions, insights, and analysis that could bring about a transformation in the way justice is delivered to women. This in-depth study is an attempt to guide decision making by bringing forth and legitimizing the battered women's voice which often goes unrepresented, in the debate about the efficacy of ADR mechanism in resolving matrimonial disputes. The book is of interest to those working for justice for women, particularly in the context of matrimonial disputes -- legal professionals, mediators, counsellors, judges, academicians, women rights activists, researchers in the field of gender and women studies, social work and law, ADR educators, policymakers and general readers who are inclined and interested in bringing a gender perspective to their area of work.

Who enjoys statutory preferred creditor status? What justifications exist for jurisdictions to maintain statutes that favour 'priority' creditors over other creditors and contributories? This book examines preferential debts derived from specific legislative provisions applying to corporate insolvency. In exploring the concept of preferential treatment, Statutory Priorities in Corporate Insolvency Law includes chapters that provide a doctrinal, theoretical and historical analysis of who enjoys preferred creditor status. As well as examining the traditional major categories of priorities, this work also identifies potential new categories for priority status such as environmental clean-up costs, international creditors, tort claimants and consumers among other non-consensual creditors. While the study focuses on Australian corporate insolvency law, where appropriate, comparisons are made with other common law jurisdictions, particularly the UK, Canada, New Zealand and the US.

Because of its enormous economic power and susceptibility to corruption, public procurement - the purchase by government of goods and services - has come under increasing regulation as world trade expands. Three international leaders in public procurement law fully explain how the procurement award process must be managed to achieve its goals in global market economy. This work should educate government officials, trade lawyers, and students in how to comply with existing and emerging regulatory schemes as they: select a contractor and plan the contract, with detailed attention to terms, conditions and specifications; allow for national security, national industrial development, and environmental protection; get value for money and avoid waste of public funds; publicize contracts; combat corruption; secure successful completion of contracts; balance pressures to buy from domestic sources with the economic benefits of international competition; harness procurement power to promote social and environmental goals; enforce compliance with public procurement rules; and recognize circumstances under which discretion-based (rather than rules-based) initiatives may be more effective.

Description
Innovation is universally recognized as an important source of economic growth. Patents may be considered as a potential measure of innovation. As such, patents may alter isoquant maps, and measuring their elasticities is both intuitively and empirically appealing. This book investigates the impact of U.S.A. patent activity on technical change in 35 industries given in the KLEM (Jorgenson, 1996) data set for the period 1958-1996. Four patent variables, namely total patent applications, total patents granted, unsuccessful patent applications and foreign patents granted, are introduced as technology-changing parameters into the generalized Fechner-Thurstone (GFT) production function to determine the effect on the elasticity of the marginal rate of technical substitution (MRTS) between inputs of the GFT production function over time. It is found that all four patent variables have significant impacts on the marginal rates of technical substitution between various production inputs over time, with foreign patents granted being the most "effective" parameter, and unsuccessful patent applications the least effective. In addition, the elasticity of the MRTS between materials and energy is found to be the most affected by patent activity, and that between materials and labor the least. The extent of technical change by patent activity varies across industries. Patent activity is found to be less effective as technology changes in some traditionally high patenting industries and more effective in others, which indicates that there are significant spillover effects of patents. Patent activity is found to have the greatest impact on technical change in the metal mining industryand the least impact in the chemicals industry.

Part of a series offering international reviews of comparative public policy, this volume provides comparative perspectives on family law and gender bias. The topics discussed include: the concept of the natural family and the American family; gender and racial sterotype; and patriarchy in China.

The Child's Interests in Conflict addresses one of the most pressing issues of any multicultural society, namely the conflicting demands on children from minority groups or children born to parents of different cultural or religious backgrounds. What the family considers to be in the child's best interests and welfare in the studied situations is not shared by society at large. Each guided by faith, culture and tradition, society views the child to be exposed to a significant harm or risk of harm if certain traditions are followed, whereas in contrast the parents believe that their child is harmed or in harm's way if that tradition is not respected.Focusing primarily on Europe, the contributions in this book, written by internationally leading experts and with a interdisciplinary element, address situations of conflict regarding the child's upbringing and education in general, the shaping of the child's cultural or faith-based identity, underage marriages, circumcision of boys, the role of faith and culture in society's placements of children outside the care of their family, and the role of faith in cross-border child abduction and disputes over parental responsibilities. Attention is paid to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and to less well-known national case law, as well as to recent national legislation, all of which show not only the complexity of the issues discussed but also the differing ways multicultural challenges are dealt with.The authors strive to answer, inter alia, how legal systems should navigate between the competing claims and conflicting interests without forgetting the main person to be protected, namely the child; and how the scope of tolerance, recognition and autonomy should be defined.

Controlling Pollution in Transition Economies examines and evaluates the recent experience of implementing pollution charges and the use of environmental permits in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia.The book focuses on controlling point-source air and water pollution. It describes and analyses the experience of implementing pollution charges and fines, and the interactions of these fiscal instruments with systems of pollution permits. The ten country case studies have been written by specialists who have been or are actively involved with the development or revision of pollution charges. Based on the experience of these countries, general conclusions are drawn for implementing pollution charge systems in other contexts. This book will encourage new theoretical and empirical work on the problem of implementing economic instruments (pollution charges), in combination with 'command-and-control' instruments (pollution permits). Practitioners and policy analysts as well as graduate students, academics, researchers and environmental consultants will find this book an important contribution to the existing literature.

The Principles of European Family Law drafted by the Commission on European Family Law (CEFL) contain models which may be used for the harmonization of family law in Europe. This book contains the Principles regarding Property Relations between Spouses. In these Principles, the CEFL has developed an all-inclusive set of rules for two matrimonial property regimes: the participiation in acquisitions and the community of acquistions. Both regimes have been put on an equal footing. Each matrimonial property regime, whether it functions as a default or as an optional regime is strongly connected with the rights and duties of the spouses and the possibility for them to make a marital property agreement. These issues have also been addressed by including two common Chapters on the General Rights and Duties of Spouses and on Marital Property Agreements which are to be applied regardless of which of the regimes applies.

Property rights formalize the relationship between individuals and goods. They form the cornerstone of the pricing, supply and efficient allocation of scarce resources between individuals.The Economic Foundations of Property Rights is an outstanding collection of some of the most important work from the founders of the field, including James M. Buchanan, Douglass C. North, Richard Posner, Armen Alchian, Lord Peter Bauer and Karl Brunner. It addresses the development of property rights, the effects of property rights on the allocation of resources and the link between alternative property rights and the production of wealth. Specifically, the authors consider the issues of democracy, law, transaction costs, the economics of exchange and the valuation of assets. The discussion considers property rights in the context of developing countries and transition economies as well as developed market systems. This comprehensive new source book will be welcomed by economists, particularly those interested in law and economics, as well as political scientists and those interested in public choice theory.

Constructive and resulting trusts have a long history in English law, and the law which governs them continues to develop as they are pressed into service to perform a wide variety of different functions, for example, to support the working of express trusts and other fiduciary relationships, to allocate family property rights, and to undo the consequences of commercial fraud. However, while their conceptual flexibility makes them enormously useful, it also makes them hard to understand. In the twelve essays collected in this volume, the authors shed new light on various aspects of the law governing constructive and resulting trusts, revisiting current controversies, bringing new historical material to the fore, and offering new theoretical perspectives.

Choice of law determines which national legal system applies to an international case. Currently many choice of law rules in the field of family law are regulated by national law. However, these national rules of the EU Member States are more and more displaced by common European rules. This book describes the changes brought by the Europeanisation of the choice of law on divorce. From the conclusions drawn in the field of divorce the concluding chapter discusses the changes of Europeanisation of international family law in a broader perspective.