Intellectual Property In The Digital Age Challenges For Asia

By examining the status of information technologies in East Asia, and the pressure to grant a level of legal protection to intellectual property owners that is hardly compatible with the present level of economic development in the region, this book offers insights into how the Internet and other digital technologies can be regulated fairly.

The trade-investment-service-intellectual property (IP) nexus remains at the heart of economic development and the main features of which are global value chains (GVCs) and digitalisation. The protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) has become a critical issue not only for advanced economies but also for emerging markets. This edited volume contributes to the debates on IPR protection and economic development from the perspective of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states. The book provides insights into the mechanism and evidence on how effective IPR protection will increase economic and social welfare via promoting innovation activities and providing incentives to diffuse knowledge and transfer technologies. Written by economists and lawyers from the region, these experts share their latest findings and thoughts on how countries in Southeast Asia have been progressively improving IPR protection and increasing the interoperability of different IPR regimes through regional cooperation to facilitate business operations in the context of digital transformation.

Introduction Intellectual property rights foster innovation. But if, as it surely does, “intellectual property” means not just intellectual property rules—the law of patents, copyrights, trademarks, designs, trade secrets, and unfair competition—but also intellectual property institutions—the courts, police, regulatory agencies, and collecting soc- ties that administer these rules—what are the respective roles of intellectual property rules and institutions in fostering creativity? And, to what extent do forces outside intellectual property rules and institutions—economics, culture, politics, history—also contribute to innovation? Is it possible that these other factors so overwhelm the impact of intellectual property regimes that it is futile to expect adjustments in intellectual property rules and institutions to alter patterns of inno- tion and, ultimately, economic development? It was to address these questions in the most dynamic region of the world today, Asia, that we invited leading country experts to contribute studies that not only summarize the current condition of intellectual property regimes in countries ranging in economic size from Cambodia to Japan, and in population from Laos to China, but that also describe the historical sources of these laws and institutions; the realities of intellectual property enforcement in the marketplace; and the political, economic, educational, and scientific infrastructures that sustain and direct inve- ment in innovative activity. A.

Intellectual Property and Free Trade Agreements presents the papers of the sixth IP conference organised by the Macau Institute of European Studies (IEEM) on intellectual property law and the economic challenges for Asia. The objective of the conferences is to provide up-to-date information on developments in global intellectual property law and policy and their impact on regional economic and cultural development. The current volume deals with the implications of free trade agreements for the international framework of intellectual property law, a topic of enormous economic and legal importance given the increasing number of free trade agreements in force or under negotiation.

Christopher Heath is a judge at the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office and former researcher of the Max Planck Institute in Munich. Anselm Kamperman Sanders is Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Director of the IPKM Master’s Programme at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. About this book: Intellectual Property and International Dispute Resolution, the first in-depth treatment of the interface between intellectual property rights and international dispute resolution. The book highlights the different mechanisms of international dispute settlement, having particular regard to cases involving intellectual property law. Investor dispute tribunals, as provided for in many bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, are suspected of intransparency, because proceedings are not public, of unequal treatment, because they give foreign investors a right of action where domestic investors would have none, and of undermining democracy, because they allow democratically enacted laws to be challenged with no possibility of appeal. What’s in this book: In this important book, a number of prominent legal scholars and practitioners examine the extent to which challenges against domestic legislation based on an alleged direct or indirect expropriation of intellectual property rights may be justified. The contributions cover such aspects as: history and current practice of international dispute resolution; direct application of international agreements by national courts; comparison of investor dispute settlement tribunals with other fora such as the WTO or domestic courts for determining compliance with international intellectual property standards; what can be considered ‘investment’ and ‘expropriation’ in the field of intellectual property; legislative freedom to operate when limiting intellectual property rights, particularly in the field of health and safety; and how societal interests could influence future legislation in the field of intellectual property law. One major focus of the book are the challenges against tobacco plain packaging legislation before domestic and international courts and tribunals and their outcome. How this book will help you: The book’s detailed analysis of the nature of investor dispute tribunals and how they may conflict with public interests – and its exploration of possible alternatives – is sure to be of great interest to internationally operating companies, policymakers, practitioners and scholars in both international trade law and intellectual property law.

Although supplying spare and replacement parts and providing repair services form the basis of many legitimate businesses, many manufacturing enterprises seek to augment the competitive advantage realized at the market stage of selling their main products by attempting to monopolize the market for spares, repairs and refills. Increasingly, companies are using intellectual property laws to devise up-front business strategies to gain exclusive rights in the components of their products. This is the first in-depth analysis of the law in this relatively new and rapidly developing area of practice. It sheds clear light on the conflicting interests of manufacturers, consumers, spare parts makers and the general public; explores the extent to which this kind of business strategy can be more or less successful with respect to the different rights involved, and in different jurisdictions; and highlights the competition issues that inevitably arise. The essays included are revised and updated versions of papers presented at the seventh (2006) of the innovative IP conference organized annually by the Macau Institute of European Studies (IEEM) on intellectual property law and the economic challenges for Asia. Among the topics and issues covered are the following: ; notions of and‘repairand’ and and‘recycleand’ and their legal effects; the limits of IP rights in relation to repair and recycle; legal limits of end user licence agreements (EULAs) and technological protection measures (TPMs); patent exhaustion on repair and recycling; alteration of product and‘identityand’; the concept of and‘indirectand’ or and‘contributoryand’ infringement; design law strategies; and secondary market definitions. The authors give detailed attention to cases in various jurisdictions that have guided and continue to guide business strategies in the field. Jurisdictions treated include the EU, the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea. In its clarification of the limits and possibilities of business strategies in this area of competition that is just beginning to attract attention, this book will be of great value not only to intellectual property law practitioners but to business people in nearly any field of production, especially where cross-border marketing is involved.

Intellectual Property Rights as Obstacles to Legitimate Trade helps to understand one of the underlying rationales of the TRIPS Agreement in light of some of the most pertinent IP issues. The WTO/TRIPS Agreement for the first time put IP rights in the context of trade rules, such as when does the exercise of IP rights become an unjustified burden to legitimate trade? Cases have arisen where IP rights are conferred, used, or enforced in a manner that arguably impedes trade, both in domestic and international contexts. This groundbreaking book is the first comprehensive assessment of this controversial area of trade law, shedding important new light on the underlying rationales of the TRIPS Agreement. With contributions by both practitioners and academics working in a range of countries, this book considers thorny issues in such areas as the following: – interpretation of ‘obstacles to legitimate trade’ in the context of GATT/ WTO jurisprudence; – separating markets by preventing parallel importation in the context of patents; – geoblocking – territorial separation of digital markets; – using trademarks to prevent competition; – geographical indications – protection of terms that are considered generic in certain domestic markets; – seizure of goods in transit; – ‘evergreening’ patents – attempts to extend the duration of patents; – rights to second-hand digital goods or content; – unjustified threats – towards appropriate standards of liability. Focusing on topical and under-researched areas of IP law, the contributors stimulate a discussion on an overarching concern that is not often addressed – how to assess whether the protection and enforcement of certain IP rights in particular situations should be classified as trade barriers. As an incisive analysis of the desirable balance between the exercise of IP rights and the demands of legitimate trade, this book will be welcomed by practitioners, lawmakers, policy advisers, and academics in both trade law and IP law.

This book critically reviews the recurrent debate on Intellectual Property law and policy in developing countries carried out in the last decade. It identifies the still unresolved policy issues and proposes alternative approaches that resonate with the needs for transformation of the economic and social reality of developing countries. Focusing on emerging economies in Asia, the work draws the wider lessons to be learnt by researchers, policy makers, legislators and the business sector in general and concludes by putting forward proposals for reform.