The Luxury Economy And Intellectual Property

This title explores the rise of the luxury goods economy and the growing role of intellectual property in creating, sustaining, and regulating this economy. Leading scholars across various disciplines critically consider the industry, its foundational intellectual property laws, and the public interest and social concerns arising from the intersection of economics and law.

Intellectual property law plays a pivotal role in ensuring that luxury goods companies can recoup their investments in the creation and dissemination of their copyrighted works, trademarked logos, and patented designs. In 2011, global sales for luxury goods reached about $250 billion, and consumers in East and Southeast Asia accounted for more than 50 percent of that figure. The rapid expansion of the market has prompted some retailers to wield intellectual property against the influx of imitators and counterfeiters. The Luxury Economy and Intellectual Property comprehensively explores the rise of the luxury goods economy and the growing role of intellectual property in creating, sustaining, and regulating this economy. Leading scholars across various disciplines critically consider the industry, its foundational intellectual property laws, and the public interest and social concerns arising from the intersection of economics and law. Topics covered include defining the concept of luxury, the social life of luxury goods, concerns about distributive justice in a world flooded by luxury goods and knockoffs, the globalization of luxury goods, and the economic, social, and political ramifications of the meteoric rise of the Asian luxury goods market.

Examines different ways of understanding power in copyright, trademark and patent policy.

Leading scholars address the interface between intellectual property and diversity with respect to culture, religion, race, and gender.

This book employs scholarly analysis to ground practical tools for applying the EU Trade Mark law (EUTM) functionality refusal grounds to address business needs when registering trade marks consisting of product characteristics. The study comprehensively examines the absolute grounds for a refusal of registration of functional signs under EUTM. It interprets the functionality refusal grounds through objective tests, focusing on the pro-competition rationale of denying trade mark exclusivity on product features that are technically or aesthetically important for competitors’ ability to trade in alternative products. The work takes a comparative approach looking at the US trade dress functionality doctrine, and a law and economics perspective on the role of trade marks and brands in the marketplace. It explores how competition rules related to market definition and the substitutability of products, as well as marketing and design findings related to branding and aesthetics, could be integrated into the legal assessment of EUTM functionality. The volume will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of Intellectual Property Law, Trade Mark and Design Law, EU Law, Comparative Law, and Branding.

This book gathers and builds on research into distinct national and regional traditions in regulating innovation. It is an early attempt at a comprehensive legal history of the uneven trans-Atlantic harmonization of IP law. Authors explore harmonization as a legal mandate and a progressive ideal, and imagine areas in which coherent regulatory webs could build a more vibrant trans-Atlantic knowledge economy.

International Intellectual Property in an Integrated World Economy, Fourth Edition by Frederick M. Abbott, Thomas Cottier, and Francis Gurry, provides a comprehensive treatment of the international intellectual property system across the spectrum of intellectual property rights and interests. It introduces the institutional architecture at the multilateral, regional/plurilateral, bilateral and national levels. For each form of IP, it addresses the technical legal rules and illustrative jurisprudence, as well as economic and social welfare implications. Each of the authors has played a role in the development and implementation of the international rules, and they bring their experience to bear in introducing students to the field. New to the Fourth Edition: The latest developments in bilateral and regional agreements regulating intellectual property, including NAFTA 2.0 (USMCA), CPTPP, and CETA Important new judicial decisions, including the U.S. Supreme Court decision adopting international exhaustion of patents and CJEU decisions addressing trademarks, geographical indications, and copyright Developments in IP and human rights; IP and competition law; and IP and health The WTO panel report in the Australia-Tobacco case Professors and students will benefit from: An approach to the international IP system that situates the rules within the broader context of international law and the public policy objectives that governments, industry, and interest groups are seeking to achieve Case law from international dispute settlement bodies, as well as from national and regional courts Discussion of patent, trademark, geographical indication, copyright, design, trade secret, and data protection; as well as plant variety protection, protection of genetic resources and traditional knowledge, and the role of open source An explanation of the new European Union Unitary Patent system Exploration of the increasingly important role of emerging market IP systems Materials to help students understand the disputes between the United States and China involving IP, investment, and transfer of technology Inclusion of important jurisprudential developments