The Role Of Theoretical Debate In The Evolution Of National And International Patent Protection

This volume offers a detailed account of the development of national patent systems, and then moving on to the international sphere to discuss the factors which provided the impetus for the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883).

This collection presents new narratives on the emergence of intellectual property rights in the law of nations during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The collection reveals the extent to which various forms of intellectual property protection eventually shaped contemporary international law.

In economic sectors crucial to human welfare – agriculture, education, and medicine – a small number of firms control global markets, primarily by enforcing intellectual property (IP) rights incorporated into trade agreements made in the 1980s onward. Such rights include patents on seeds and medicines, copyrights for educational texts, and trademarks in consumer products. According to conventional wisdom, these agreements likewise ended hopes for a 'New International Economic Order,' under which wealth would be redistributed from rich countries to poor. Sam F. Halabi turns this conventional wisdom on its head by demonstrating that the New International Economic Order never faded, but rather was redirected by other treaties, formed outside the nominally economic sphere, that protected poor countries' interests in education, health, and nutrition and resulted in redistribution and regulation. This illuminating work should be read by anyone seeking a nuanced view of how IP is shaping the global knowledge economy.

The British Patent System during the Industrial Revolution 1700–1852 presents a fundamental reassessment of the contribution of patenting to British industrialisation during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It shows that despite the absence of legislative reform, the British patent system was continually evolving and responding to the needs of an industrialising economy. Inventors were able to obtain and enforce patent rights with relative ease. This placed Britain in an exceptional position. Until other countries began to enact patent laws in the 1790s, it was the only country where inventors were frequently able to appropriate returns from obtaining intellectual property rights, thus encouraging them to develop the new technology industrialisation required.

International Intellectual Property: A Handbook of Contemporary Research provides researchers and practitioners of international intellectual property law with the necessary tools to understand the latest debates in this incredibly dynamic and complex

Examines the relationships between intellectual property law, international exhibitions, advertising practices and the press during the 'long nineteenth century'.

As technological developments multiply around the globeâ€"even as the patenting of human genes comes under serious discussionâ€"nations, companies, and researchers find themselves in conflict over intellectual property rights (IPRs). Now, an international group of experts presents the first multidisciplinary look at IPRs in an age of explosive growth in science and technology. This thought-provoking volume offers an update on current international IPR negotiations and includes case studies on software, computer chips, optoelectronics, and biotechnologyâ€"areas characterized by high development cost and easy reproducibility. The volume covers these and other issues: Modern economic theory as a basis for approaching international IPRs. U.S. intellectual property practices versus those in Japan, India, the European Community, and the developing and newly industrializing countries. Trends in science and technology and how they affect IPRs. Pros and cons of a uniform international IPRs regime versus a system reflecting national differences.

This significantly updated second edition of the Research Handbook on Patent Law provides comprehensive coverage of new research for patent protection in three major jurisdictions: the United States, Europe and Japan.

For anyone with an interest in patent law, intellectual property law generally, and/or the interplay of policy and practice at the forefront of an essentially economic but ideology laden area of law, this is an excellent work providing much food for thought. . . This work is an excellent addition to the literature in the area and will fuel ongoing debate over reform. At the very least it will provide an interesting read for those with an interest in intellectual property law, or who practice in the area. The practice of law can all too easily exhibit the worst attributes of scholasticism; work such as this is an enjoyable remedy, and I recommend this book for all those who care to reflect upon the deeper themes of this area of law and who have an interest in the process of debate as opposed to advocacy for a particular position. . . A decent glass of something along with this book makes for an enjoyable few hours at the very least. Gus Hazel, New Zealand Law Journal The current patent system is both facilitator and stumbling block, as the editors recognise, and the problems raised by borderline inventions at the margins of patentability, as well as the detection and deterrence of free riders, reflect this ambiguity. The editors are to be congratulated on putting together such a good and enjoyable read, complete with a set of conclusions and recommendations. ipkat.com Clearly written in an accessible style, this book brings together economic thinking on innovation and legal thinking on unpatentable invention and sets them in the context of the legal systems in countries in various parts of the world. Its great merit is the emphasis on empirical and institutional analysis of theory and practice. It should inform IP policy-making everywhere. Ruth Towse, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands This book asks whether or not protecting unpatentable innovation is a good idea, especially for developing countries. Edited by well-known specialists from the Queen Mary IP Institute and the Singapore IP Academy, who have included their own substantial contributions, the work contains a number of valuable empirical studies by national experts mainly from the Far East and Latin America on the operation of national utility models and other similar schemes designed to protect innovation outside the patent system. The book is essential reading for lawyers, economists, policy makers and NGOs concerned with how best to encourage national and regional innovation and economic prosperity. David Vaver, University of Oxford, UK Focusing on innovation and development, this book, easy to read and full of interesting detail, provides both valuable insight into the theoretical framework of innovation as supported by intellectual property protection and contains valuable case studies of national systems of innovation in the Pacific Rim States. Thomas Dreier, University of Karlsruhe, Germany This book is concerned with the extent to which innovations should or should not be protected as intellectual property, and the implications this has upon the ability of local manufacturers to learn to innovate. A question the book considers is how far legal protection should extend to inventions that may only just, or indeed not quite, meet the conventional criteria for patentability, in terms of the level of inventiveness. Innovation without Patents offers a thoughtful and empirically rich analysis of the current system in a number of developed and developing countries in the Asia-Pacific. It asks whether such innovations should remain free from patenting, or whether alternative intellectual property regimes should be offered in such cases, and indeed whether the requirements change depending on a country s level of development. This discussion is capped by a number of proposed policy options. The theoretical and practical approaches to intellectual property rights, innovation and development policy formulation make Innovation without Patents acce