Intellectual Property And The Design Of Nature

'Intellectual Property and the Design of Nature' brings together scholars from different disciplines to reflect on the historical connections between intellectual property law and nature. It casts a new light on this relationship and demonstrates the central position nature occupies across the whole discipline.

Intellectual property law has been interacting with nature for over two centuries. Despite this long history, this relationship has largely been ignored. Intellectual Property and the Design of Nature fills this gap by bringing together scholars from different disciplines to examine the important role that nature plays in intellectual property law. Based on the idea that many contemporary issues require a better understanding of these historical interactions, the book reflects on the ways intellectual property law has engaged with and understood nature in the past. The varied contributions show how the relationship between nature and intellectual property law is often more complex, permeable, and porous than is commonly recognized. Intellectual Property and the Design of Nature demonstrates the complex and changing role that nature has played in the history of intellectual property law. Each of the chapters casts a new light on these connections. A compelling read for everyone interested in exploring new perspectives in the field of intellectual property.

The copyright/design interface for a wider, non-specialist audience, taking as a starting point the notion of industrial design derived from design studies, on the border between art and science.

One of the common themes in recent public debate has been the law's inability to accommodate the new ways of creating, distributing and replicating intellectual products. In this book the authors argue that in order to understand many of the problems currently confronting the law, it is necessary to understand its past. This is its first detailed historical account. In this book the authors explore two related themes. First, they explain why intellectual property law came to take its now familiar shape with sub-categories of patents, copyright, designs and trade marks. Secondly, the authors set out to explain how it is that the law grants property status to intangibles. In doing so they explore the rise and fall of creativity as an organising concept in intellectual property law, the mimetic nature of intellectual property law and the important role that the registration process plays in shaping intangible property.

This book focuses on intellectual property (IP) in the context of product innovation and design-led start-up management. A distinguished feature is that it analyses innovation-related scenarios within their continuously changing contexts. IP is discussed in relation to the way in which its value changes over time as a venture matures. The book reveals how IP strategies can enhance a start-up’s survival prospects and its growth potential if they are connected systematically to other business development attributes. Being mainly addressed to enterprising designers, it may also support business administration programmes, innovation hubs, design educators, incubator managers, as well as business coaches and IP attorneys who support creatives and inventors. All in all, this book offers a unique and timely strategic guidance in the field of design and innovation management. “Design and design rights have long been overlooked in the plethora of studies on the links between IPR and innovation. Matthias Hillner’s thoughtful and eloquent journey provides a contemporary and meaningful analysis which will no doubt assist governments, economists, academics and designers’ better understanding of design in the context of successful business strategies and IPR. Given design’s significant contribution to global economies, I am confident it will offer much needed guidance.” Dids Macdonald OBE, founder CEO of Anticopying in Design (ACID) "This is an immensely practical book for designers and entrepreneurs who want to understand the issues of IP, product innovation, and business development. With clear explanations, many vivid examples, and strategically useful tips, it will be a valuable resource for creative minds at all levels of experience. A serious book but written with a sensitive touch on how to protect new ideas." Richard Buchanan, Professor of Design, Management, and Innovation, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University

For the first time, this book provides an up-to-date history of product design and product design law covering 17 countries — Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), Russia, the United States, Brazil and Australia — selected for their innovative or influential approach to design or design protection. Each country is the subject of two chapters — one on the history of design and the other on the history of design law — authored by experts in design and intellectual property (IP) law. This unique interdisciplinary approach explains why and how various national design protection systems (that can include design, copyright, trade mark, competition and civil laws) developed, making it an ideal book for students, researchers and lawyers. The book also serves as an international survey of different national policy and legal responses to historical developments and specific design and legal issues allowing readers to consider their advantages and disadvantages — and so is also recommended for policy and law makers, as well as organizations that administer IP rights. Topics include the subject matter of design protection; procedural and substantive requirements; design registration; infringement; and the overlap of design rights and other IP rights. The chapters on design history provide further context to the historical development of these legal concepts by considering major design movements, key designers and iconic designs and the current state of design. The chapters highlight the connected and often complementary relationship between the two histories, not only for each country, but at the regional and international level, often as a result of government policies, trade, colonialism, immigration and globalisation. Design and design practice continue to become more global and evolve with developments in technology. At the same time, design laws are not internationally harmonized and continue to develop at the national level, with a number of significant changes occurring in recent years. This timely book shows how the lessons of the past continue to inform the future direction of design and the legal systems developed to protect it.

Providing a comprehensive and systematic commentary on the nature of overlapping Intellectual Property rights and their place in practice, this book is a major contribution to the way that IP is understood. IP rights are mostly studied in isolation, yet in practice each of the legal categories created to protect IP rights will usually only provide partial legal coverage of the broader context in which such rights are actually created, used, and enforced. Consequently, often multiple IP rights may overlap, in whole or in part, with respect to the same underlying subject matter. Some patterns, for instance, in addition to being protected from copying under the design rights regime, may also be distinctive enough to warrant trade mark protection. Each chapter addresses a discrete pair of IP rights and is written by a specialist in that area. Facilitating an understanding of how and when those rights may be encountered in practice, each chapter is introduced by a hypothetical situation setting out the overlap discussed in the chapter. The conceptual and practical issues arising from this situation are then discussed, providing practitioners with a full understanding of the overlap. Also included is a valuable summary table setting out the legal position for each set of overlapping rights in jurisdictions across Europe, Central and South America, and Asia, and the differences between them.

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