Intellectual Property And Private International Law

Co-published by WIPO and the Hague Conference on Private International Law, this guide is a pragmatic tool, written by judges, for judges, examining how private international law operates in intellectual property (IP) matters. Using illustrative references to selected international and regional instruments and national laws, the guide aims to help judges apply the laws of their own jurisdiction, supported by an awareness of key issues concerning jurisdiction of the courts, applicable law, the recognition and enforcement of judgments, and judicial cooperation in cross-border IP disputes.

The protection and commercial exploitation of intellectual property rights such as patents, trade marks, designs and copyright are seldom confined to one country and the introduction of a foreign element inevitably raises potential problems of private international law, ranging fromestablishing which court has jurisdiction and which is the applicable law to securing the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. For example, will a foreign defendant be subject to the jurisdiction of the English courts if he induces his English distributor to infringe a patent inEngland? What law will apply to a trade mark licensing agreement made between a German company and a French company where the parties have not expressly chosen whose law governs their contract? And are an author's rights determined by the same law as that governing the issue of the transferabilityof copyright? Although such issues are becoming increasingly important, a dearth of literature exists on the subject. Fawcett and Torremans remedy that neglect and provide a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the topic that will be welcomed by practitioners and scholars alike. From the authors' preface This book is concerned with the application of the rules of private international law to intellectual property cases. Private international lawyers have largely ignored this topic, and it has been left to intellectual property lawyers to discuss this. This is a pity. It is a topic which raisesunique questions for the private international lawyer which deserve an answer, and at the same time tells us much about the rules of private international law that are being applied. The aim of the book is to fill this gap in the literature. The emphasis in the book is on private international lawrather than on intellectual property law. Nonetheless, it is hoped that intellectual property lawyers will find much to interest them here Most of the book is taken up with a discussion of the relevant rules of private international law and their application in the context of intellectual property law. A major theme of the book is the extent to which there are special rules of private international law for this area and whether thereshould be such rules. Alternative private international law solutions will be considered by looking at the law in other jurisdictions and, where appropriate, proposals will be put forward for a better solution This book is part of the Oxford Monographs in Private International Law series, the aim of which is to publish work of high quality and originality in a number of important areas of private international law. The series is intended for both scholarly and practitioner readers.

This volume examines the protection and exploitation of intellectual property rights, along with international problems relating to which court has jurisdiction and which is the relevant law in foreign cases and judgments.

A timely examination of fundamental issues in intellectual property (IP) law, with international perspectives looking across regimes, jurisdictions, disciplines and professions.

In this, the third edition of Private International Law and the Internet, Professor Dan Svantesson provides a detailed and insightful account of what is emerging as the most crucial current issue in private international law; that is, how the Internet affects and is affected by the four fundamental questions: When should a lawsuit be entertained by the courts? Which state's law should be applied? When should a court that can entertain a lawsuit decline to do so? And will a judgment rendered in one country be recognized and enforced in another? He identifies and investigates twelve characteristics of Internet communication that are relevant to these questions, and then proceeds with a detailed discussion of what is required of modern private international law rules. Professor Svantesson's approach focuses on several issues that have far-reaching practical consequences in the Internet context, including the following: • cross-border defamation; • cross-border business contracts; • cross-border consumer contracts; and • cross-border intellectual property issues. A wide survey of private international law solutions encompasses insightful and timely analyses of relevant laws adopted in a variety of countries including Australia, England, Hong Kong, the United States, Germany, Sweden, and China as well as in a range of international instruments. There is also a chapter on advances in geo-identification technology and its special value for legal practice. The book concludes with two model international conventions, one on cross-border defamation and one on cross-border contracts; as well as a set of practical check-lists to guide legal practitioners faced with cross-border matters within the discussed fields. Professor Svantesson's book brings together a wealth of research findings in the overlapping disciplines of law and technology that will be of particular utility to practitioners and academics working in this new and rapidly changing field. His thoughtful analysis of the interplay of the developing Internet and private international law will also be of great value, as will the tools he offers with which to anticipate the future. Private International Law and the Internet provides a remarkable stimulus to continue working towards globally acceptable rules on jurisdiction, applicable law, and recognition and enforcement of judgments for communication via the Internet.

The relationship between intellectual property and private international law is a fascinating and multi-faceted one. Both fields are inherently international, but it is the exponential increase in conflicts involving trans-border elements, in a world characterised by global trade and borderless communication structures, that has, in modern times, drawn the two disciplines close. The essays contained in this book, first presented at a Symposium in Munich, set out possible visions for a future system of international and regional jurisdiction and applicable law that is better adapted to the increasingly supranational character of IP rights. A second feature of the book is its treatment of 'harmonisation' of choice-of-law issues. Framed by these two elements - international jurisdiction on the one hand and perspectives for harmonised choice of law rules in an international context on the other - specific European themes are also addressed; jurisdiction, the establishment of a European judiciary in the patent field, the relationship between regional (European) systems and an international jurisdiction convention, and the recent proposal for a Regulation on applicable law in non-contractual relationships (Rome II).

'Intellectual property and private international law' was one of the subjects discussed at the 18th International Congress of Comparative Law held in Washington (July 2010). This volume contains the General Report and 20 National Reports covering Canada, US, Japan, Korea, India and a number of European countries (Austria, France, Germany, UK, Spain etc). The General Report was prepared on the basis of National Reports. The national reporters not only describe the existing legal framework, but also provide answers for up to 12 hypothetical cases concerning international jurisdiction, choice-of-law and recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in multi-state IP disputes. Based on their answers the main differences between legal systems as well as the shortcomings of the cross-border enforcement of IP rights are outlined in the General Report. The Reports in this volume analyse relevant court decisions as well as recent legislative proposals (such as the ALI, CLIP, Transparency, Waseda and Korean Principles). This book is therefore a significant contribution to the existing debate in the field and will be a valuable source of reference in shaping future developments in the cross-border enforcement of IP rights in a global context.

This comprehensive book provides a ground-breaking new explanation of the principle of national treatment in the Berne Convention and the Paris Convention and new insights into the history of the conflict-of-laws, aliens law and their relationship. Providing a full and detailed analysis of the existence and the interpretation of the conflict-of-law rule in these conventions, this book will be an important resource for legal scholars, specialized practitioners and policy-makers.