Intellectual property has become a dominant feature of our knowledge based economy in recent years, but how has property rights in intangible items developed? This book brings together for the first time exemplary scholarship with diverse approaches to the history of United States intellectual property protection, including trade secrets, trademark, copyright, and patent law. These articles, written by leading experts in the field and often challenging conventional narratives, underscore the importance of historical perspectives for understanding how an extensive, evolving framework for the regulation of knowledge emerged in the modern period. By tracing intellectual property from an historical perspective - not merely providing justifications in philosophy or economics in the abstract - this book draws upon the past to address contemporary debates over such varied topics as: access to knowledge; policing copyright infringement; whether employees should own the products of their minds; the role of national borders in an age of digital information; and the very future of intellectual property as stakeholders and consumers contest the extent of its legal protection.

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.

This text provides a full and clear exposition of the fundamentals of intellectual property law in the UK. It combines excerpts from cases and a broad range of secondary works with insightful commentary from the authors which will situate the law within a wider international, comparative and political context.

This book discusses the impact of intellectual property and international investment agreements within Africa. It investigates how African nations can enhance their current intellectual property legislation across various regions of the continent, while simultaneously fostering the development of local industries and stimulating innovation and creativity within the region. Despite intellectual property remaining a major issue in global trade governance, African countries have room to maximise the advantages that global intellectual property law can offer. Highlighting discourse on investment, intellectual property, and competition policies in Africa, the book underscores the need for African nations to develop intellectual property frameworks that can facilitate economic transformation. Using data from international intellectual property conventions, WTO dispute settlements and African regional organisation conventions, the book is a comprehensive call to action for African intellectual property lawyers and policymakers. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in the field of intellectual property law and international investment law.

This volume brings together a group of contributors from varied backgrounds to tell a history of intellectual property in 50 objects.

Hart Publishing is pleased to announce that it has recently become publisher of this prestigious and much valued work. The 15th Annual volume in the series collects the presentations and discussion from the Annual Fordham IP Conference. The contributions, by leading world experts, analyze the most pressing issues in copyright, trademark and patent law as seen from the perspectives of the USA, the EU, Asia and WIPO. This volume, in common with its predecessors, seeks to make a lasting contribution to discourse in IP law; few of the chapters are merely descriptive, and most raise questions of policy or discuss new developments. Praise for the Fordham International Intellectual Property Conference: "This must be one of the most enjoyable and thought-provoking conferences in the IP field. The high quality of the speakers is matched by the intense, audience-led debates and challenges which follow." Hugh Laddie, (formerly Mr. Justice Laddie) University College, London and consultant to Rouse & Co, Willoughby & Partners. "Faculty for this conference are always well-known 'names' well respected leaders in their fields, speaking with a combination of candor and timeliness that is unrivaled by any other forum of its kind." The Honorable Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights, United States Copyright Office.

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this monograph provides a survey and analysis of the rules concerning Intellectual Property Law in Saudi Arabia. It covers every type of intellectual property right in depth – copyright and neighbouring rights, patents, utility models, trademarks, trade names, industrial designs, plant variety protection, chip protection, trade secrets, and confidential information. Particular attention is paid throughout to recent developments and trends. The analysis approaches each right in terms of its sources in law and in legislation, and proceeds to such legal issues as subject matter of protection, conditions of protection, ownership, transfer of rights, licences, scope of exclusive rights, limitations, exemptions, duration of protection, infringement, available remedies, and overlapping with other intellectual property rights. The book provides a clear overview of intellectual property legislation and policy, and at the same time offers practical guidance on which sound preliminary decisions may be based. Lawyers representing parties with interests in Intellectual Property Law in Saudi Arabia will welcome this very useful guide, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative intellectual property law.

European Intellectual Property Law offers a full account of the main areas of substantive European intellectual property law - including the law of copyright and related rights, patents and plant variety rights, trademarks, design rights, and rights in data and information.

Focusing on cultural expressions that are most likely to intermingle with copyright law, trademark and IP-adjacent regulations, this book examines contemporary issues in technology, intellectual property law, and culture. Intangible Cultural Heritage can consist of traditional knowledge, songs, craftsmanship, dance, and other practices, as well as the associated cultural artefacts and spaces; a widely varied global living heritage, transmitted generationally, must be allowed to organically evolve, often defying the process of identification so desirable in the realm of legal protections. This nebulous essence is particularly ill-suited to modern legal frameworks that can conflate the creative outputs that copyright is meant to protect with shared cultural practices. Combining a legal perspective with historical tact, the book develops a theoretical model to track the interaction amongst these issues as well as to make policy recommendations based on the existing and projected possible future outcomes. Several chapters of the book will be dedicated to contemporary issues where this framework and interaction are currently developing, focussing on law and technology issues with archiving and museums, online platforms and copyright infringement, and communities and creative production in virtual worlds. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in the field of copyright law and intellectual property law.

This book provides a comprehensive critique of the idea that 'intellectual property' exists as an object that can be owned.