We live in an age in which expressive, informational, and
technological subject matter are becoming increasingly important.
Intellectual property is the primary means by which the law seeks
to regulate such subject matter. It aims to promote innovation and
creativity, and in doing so to support solutions to global
environmental and health problems, as well as freedom of expression
and democracy. It also seeks to stimulate economic growth and
competition, accounting for its centrality to EU Internal Market
and international trade and development policies. Additionally, it
is of enormous and increasing importance to business. As a result
there is a substantial and ever-growing interest in intellectual
property law across all spheres of industry and social policy,
including an interest in its legal principles, its social and
normative foundations, and its place and operation in the political
economy. This handbook written by leading academics and
practitioners from the field of intellectual property law, and
suitable for both a specialist legal readership and an intelligent
but non-specialist legal and non-legal readership, provides a
comprehensive account of the following areas: - The foundations of
IP law, including its emergence and development in different
jurisdictions and regions; - The substantive rules and principles
of IP; and - Important issues arising from the existence and
operation of IP in the political economy.
General
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Thu, 1 Nov 2018 | Review
by: Phillip T.
GLOBAL ISSUES, GLOBAL ANSWERS
ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY FROM THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers
and Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”
The importance of intellectual property to the global economy, as well as to individual nations is incalculable – unless you want to do the complicated maths – and that would involve you in very large numbers.
It is easier to say that the importance of IP as an area of law cannot be underestimated. And if proof were needed, it can be found here more or less in this new handbook published recently by the Oxford University Press.
This hefty but handy volume is a compendium of thirty-four learned essays and articles from more than as many international contributors from a range of jurisdictions worldwide. Each offers expert commentary on specific aspects of IP under the editorship of Rochelle Dreyfuss and Justine Pila who hail respectively, from New York University and the University of Oxford.
Speaking of the monetary value of IP, the editors offer up some interesting statistics from the UK Intellectual Property Office. For example, in 2011, ‘UK business invested £126.8 billion in knowledge assets comparted with £88 billion in tangible assets.’ Approximately 50 per cent of all this was protected by intellectual property rights. Additional figures follow which relate to the UK alone, but you get the idea.
As emphasized by the editors, IP laws ‘seek to stimulate
economic growth’ and encourage ‘freedom of expression, culture and democracy.’ Well, absolutely -- and one is tempted to add that said laws are also out there to protect the hard work of creative of individuals from unscrupulous copyists out to profit from stealing other people’s ideas.
The publication of this Handbook is thus a welcome event, offering as it does, an historic as well as global perspective on Intellectual Property which does much to reveal its scope and significance, as well as the ways in which it can vary under different legal systems.
Take as just one example, the article by Michaly Ficsor entitled ‘Intellectual Property Law in Central and Eastern Europe.’ Through the lens of recent history, this essay compares, more or less, the concept of intellectual property in the so-called ‘capitalist countries’ with the ways and means that creative endeavour was protected in Eastern Europe during the Soviet period.
‘There’s a direct quotation here from Karl Marx’s ‘Manifesto of the Communist Party’ which says it all. ‘The theory of Communism,’ says Marx, ‘maybe summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of Private Property.’
Even after the break-up of the Soviet Union, there apparently remained a reluctance, mainly on the part of ‘professors and researchers’ to use the word ‘property’, preferring instead to refer to intellectual property law as ‘the law of intellectual creations.’ As a former Assistant Director General of the WIPO, Ficsor explains that ‘they didn’t want to recognize that their arguments had become outdated.’
Interestingly, the book also contains articles covering the emergence and development of IP in other areas, from Western Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to Asia, Africa, South America and more. Plus, there is so much more besides, including treatises on IP and the Internet and on climate change.
It must be said that the editors of this Handbook have achieved their stated aim -- consistent with the other volumes in the Oxford Handbook Series -- namely ‘to provide a detailed entree to the field.’ This remarkably wide-ranging survey will certainly be of interest not merely to practitioners and academics, but to a much wider readership in industry and government worldwide.
The publication date is cited as at 19th June 2018.
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