The Innovation Society And Intellectual Property

Intellectual property (IP) rights impact innovation in diverse ways. This book critically analyses whether additional rights beyond patents, trademarks and copyrights are needed to promote innovation. Featuring contributions from thought-leaders in the field of IP, this book examines the check and balances that already exist in the IP system to safeguard innovation and questions to what extent existing IP regimes are capable of catering to new paradigms of innovation and creativity.

This incisive book examines the role of Intellectual Property (IP) as a complex adaptive system in innovation and the lifecycle of IP intensive assets. Discussing recent innovation trends, it places emphasis on how different forms of intellectual property law can facilitate these trends. Inventors and entrepreneurs are guided through the lifecycle of IP intensive assets that commercialise human creativity. Utilising a range of sector specific, interdisciplinary and actor-focused approaches, each contribution offers suggestions on how Europe’s capacity to foster innovation-based sustainable economic growth can be enhanced on a global scale.

The book presents an impressive line-up of experts in the increasingly relevant field of law and economics, an area that has particular relevance to the issue of IP rights. . . an excellent collection of cutting-edge research. . . an essential read for those interested in the economic impact of IPRs. . . a highly recommended collection. Andrés Guadamuz, Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice Intellectual property policy has been framed too commonly in terms of refining and strengthening legal rights. As intellectual property grows in scope and importance, the limitations of this narrow approach have become all too apparent. This important collection puts the policy problems in proper perspective by assembling the work of leading scholars and researchers who examine intellectual property rights in terms of how they actually work in legal, economic, and institutional contexts. Brian Kahin, University of Michigan and formerly White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, US For a long time we have thought about IPRs as a policy instrument to avoid a "tragedy of commons". The essays collected by Birgitte Andersen show that in the XXI century economy there is another, and so far underestimated, danger: a sort of "tragedy of markets" where every knowledge or cultural expression becomes privatised. This will generate a greater knowledge and culture divide, with an increased corporate dominance. Those who are afraid of the dangers of exclusion and believe that open access to science, technology and culture will lead us in a more intriguing world will find convincing arguments and explanations in this volume. Daniele Archibugi, Italian National Research Council, Italy There is a growing need to understand the role of the regulation of intellectual property rights (IPRs), in order not only to achieve economic performance, growth and sustainable development at corporate, sectoral and global levels, but also to provide a higher quality of life for communities worldwide. Intellectual Property Rights is cutting edge in addressing current debates affecting businesses, industry sectors and society today, and in focusing not only on the enabling welfare effects of IPR systems, but also on some of the possible adverse effects of IPR systems. The main areas covered in the book are: the global commons in an era of corporate dominance and privatisation of the public domain, including science, culture, and healthcare under TRIPS the rationales for IPRs, and the importance of an appropriate design of an IPR regime in achieving its objectives opening the black box of IPR offices and critically reviewing how they affect economic performance in both theory and practice coordinating the institutions (state versus sector institutions, knowledge networks, innovation systems) creating and extracting financial and non-financial value from patents and copyrights. This book challenges the existing mainstream thinking and analytical frameworks dominating the theoretical literature on IPRs within economics, management, politics, law and regulation theory. It is relevant for policymakers, business analysts, industrial and business economists, researchers and students.

This book focuses on the question of how much control innovators should be given over their works. The first parts examine the trend to increase control: first, by expanding the scope of intellectual property rights to add new subject matter; secondly, through increasing transactionalautonomy. The former issue represents the key concerns of the intellectual property community; the latter issue is currently before both state and national legislatures.The question that these groups are debating is the subject of the next part: whether strong intellectual property rights, coupled with a high degree of transactional autonomy, promote innovation or chill interchange. One view is that the current legal regime should not be altered because itrepresents the right balance between the needs of information producers and the requirements of users. The contrary view is that stronger rights would allow potential collaborators to find one another, bargain for beneficial exchanges, and reallocate rights. The final sections explore the bases inconstitutions, laws, and treaties for protecting the public domain. Four judges from the US federal courts and the UK high court then debate the practicalities of the frameworks proposed.

This is the long-awaited companion volume to the highly acclaimed Expanding the Boundaries of Intellectual Property, (OUP), 2001. Since then, intellectual property protection has grown ever stronger, and this new book focuses on finding ways to cope with the fragmentation of rights and the complex framework this expansion of rights has created.

ÔAbbe BrownÕs new work provides a welcome and extremely valuable addition of the human rights dimension to the long standing conflict over essential technologies between intellectual property and competition law.Õ Ð Steven Anderman, University of Essex, UK and University of Stockholm, Sweden ÔMuch has been written on the flexibilities available within the intellectual property system to address development and social needs. This book goes a step further: it explores how greater access to essential technologies can be ensured through human rights and competition law. Although the analysis is focused on UK and the European Union, the book provides valuable insights for assessing the situation in other jurisdictions. The author suggests an innovative approach for courts and legislators to overcome, in the light of public interest considerations, the limits imposed by intellectual property rights. This book is a much welcomed contribution to academic and policy debates on the subject.Õ Ð Carlos M. Correa, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina ÔIntellectual property interacts (or clashes?) with human rights and competition law. The refreshing bit about this book is that a detailed practical approach to the inevitable balancing act is proposed. Abbe Brown explains how a human rights approach is the cornerstone of such a balancing approach and how positive results can be achieved towards unblocking essential technologies. And it can be done in the existing international legal framework, even if the latter could be improved. Well-researched, challenging and interesting reading!Õ Ð Paul Torremans, University of Nottingham, UK ÔAbbe BrownÕs study starts from the assumption that IP right owners, particularly those of innovative technologies, dispose of a disproportionate strong legal position in relation to that of competitors and customers, which is detrimental to society at large. Brown investigates how the power of the IP right owners can be limited by applying existing human rights law and competition law. To that aim it is suggested to widen the legal landscape and to develop a more tripartite substantive approach to IP law, human rights law and competition law. BrownÕs study offers a very welcome new contribution to the literature on the functioning of IP law, by stressing the joint role which competition law and human rights law can play in this respect.Õ Ð F. Willem Grosheide, Utrecht University and Attorney at law, Van Doorne Amsterdam, The Netherlands This detailed book explores the relationship between intellectual property, competition and human rights. It considers the extent to which they can and must be combined by decision makers, and how this approach can foster innovation in key areas for society Ð such as pharmaceutical drugs, communications software and technology to combat climate change. The author argues that these three legal fields are strongly interrelated and that they can be used to identify essential technologies. She demonstrates that in some cases, combining the fields can deliver new bases for wider access to be provided to technologies. The solutions developed are strongly based on existing laws, with a focus on the UK and the EU and the structures of existing forms of dispute resolution, including the European Court of Human Rights and the dispute settlement bodies of the World Trade Organisation. The final chapters also suggest opportunities for further engagement at international policy and activist level, new approaches to IP and its treaties, and wider adoption of the proposals. This timely book will appeal to academics and practitioners in IP, competition and human rights, as well as innovation-related industry groups and access to knowledge, health and environment activists.

Christine Greenhalgh explains the complex process of innovation & how it sustains the growth of firms, industries & economies, combining microeconomic & macroeconomic analysis.

This book defines 'nanowares' as the ideas and products arising out of nanotechnology. Koepsell argues that these rapidly developing new technologies demand a new approach to scientific discovery and innovation in our society. He takes established ideas from social philosophy and applies them to the nanoparticle world. In doing so he breaks down the subject into its elemental form and from there we are better able to understand how these elements fit into the construction of a more complex system of products, rules and regulations about these products. Where existing research in the field has tended to focus on potential social harm, Koepsell takes a different approach by looking at ways in which developments in distributed design and fabrication can be harnessed to enable wealth creation by those with good ideas but no access to capital. He argues that the key challenge facing us is the error implicit in current intellectual property regimes and presents new modes of relating inventors to artifacts in this new context. In conclusion he offers contractual models which he believes encourage innovation in nano-media by embracing open source and alternative means of protection for innovators.