Intellectual Property Law Directions

Intellectual Property Law is written in an informal, engaging and lively manner with an emphasis on explaining the key topics covered on intellectual property law courses with clarity. It focuses on the practical issues of United Kingdom law at the same time as demonstrating how the subject is being shaped by outside forces.

Developments and Directions in Intellectual Property Law celebrates the 20th anniversary of award-winning intellectual property (IP) blog, The IPKat, originally founded in 2003. Over the past two decades, The IPKat has covered and commented on several of the most topical developments in the IP field from substantive, practical, and policy standpoints. Today, The IPKat is considered the “Most Popular Intellectual Property Law Blawg” of all time (source: Justia) and its readers are academics, members of the judiciary, policy and law-makers, practitioners, and students from all over the world. By bringing together several of the current and past contributors to The IPKat, this book reflects on the developments and directions that have emerged in the IP field over the past twenty years. Topics covered include changes within substantive IP rights, as well as IP law, policy, and practice broadly intended and from a global perspective. From copyright to trade marks, patents to designs, image and publicity rights to geographical indications, and developments in IP practice and the court system to contract drafting, readers of this book will find expert insights into some of the most notable developments in IP since the inception of The IPKat blog.

'Intellectual Property Law' is written in an informal, engaging and lively manner with an emphasis on explaining the key topics covered on intellectual property law courses with clarity. It focuses on the practical issues of UK law at the same time as demonstrating how the subject is being shaped by outside forces.

Intellectual Property Law is written in an informal, engaging and lively manner with an emphasis on explaining the key topics covered on intellectual property law courses with clarity. It focuses on the practical issues of United Kingdom law at the same time as demonstrating how the subject is being shaped by outside forces.

Developments and Directions in Intellectual Property Law celebrates the 20th anniversary of award-winning intellectual property (IP) blog, The IPKat, originally founded in 2003. Over the past two decades, The IPKat has covered and commented on several of the most topical developments in the IP field from substantive, practical, and policy standpoints. Today, The IPKat is considered the "Most Popular Intellectual Property Law Blawg" of all time (source: Justia) and its readers are academics, members of the judiciary, policy and law-makers, practitioners, and students from all over the world. By bringing together several of the current and past contributors to The IPKat, this book reflects on the developments and directions that have emerged in the IP field over the past twenty years. Topics covered include changes within substantive IP rights, as well as IP law, policy, and practice broadly intended and from a global perspective. From copyright to trade marks, patents to designs, image and publicity rights to geographical indications, and developments in IP practice and the court system to contract drafting, readers of this book will find expert insights into some of the most notable developments in IP since the inception of The IPKat blog.

'Intellectual Property Law' is the definitive textbook on this subject. It clearly sets out the law in relation to copyright, patents, trade marks, passing off and confidentiality, whilst enlivening the text with illustrations and diagrams.

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.

In 2009, the Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP) dedicated its yearly congress to the theme Horizontal Issues in IP Law; Uncovering the Matrix. That theme and the main concern of the so-called Intellectual Property of Transition Project have been brought together by the editors of the current book under the intriguing title The Structure of Intellectual Property Law Questioned, is whether the apparent compartmentalisation and fragmentation of actual intellectual property law can be based upon a coherent system that supports the entire field. In other words: it is questioned whether one organising principle which underlies the different parts of this domain of law can be found. Not surprisingly, the answers given by the various experts that contribute to this book tend to differ, mainly depending on their field of interest: copyright law, patent law, trademark law, the main tendency being in favour of tailoring instead of unifying both from the perspective of efficiency and that of economics. However, even more interesting than the answers to the question posed, are the stimulating and thought-provoking analyses which the book offers. This is really a book one should read if one is interested in the conjunction of the basic principles of intellectual property law and how they work out in practice. Willem Grosheide, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Today, intellectual property is a broad genus embracing various more specific species - invention patents, copyright, trade marks and so forth. Anyone concerned with how this ever-expanding grouping is developing should read the fourteen essays in this book. Written by leading scholars, they tackle not only the relationships between the species, but also those between sub-species. Originally presented as papers to the Association for Teaching and Research in IP, the writing is both subtle and full of verve. Strongly recommended. William Cornish, Cambridge University, UK This well-researched and highly topical book analyses whether the ever-increasing degree of sophistication in intellectual property law necessarily leads to fragmentation and inconsistency, or whether the common principles informing the system are sustainable enough to offer a solid and resilient framework for legal development.