The Europeanization of Intellectual Property Law

Abstract

This book addresses some key methodological and institutional issues affecting the development of European intellectual property law. It consists of 14 chapters contributed by judges and academics from the UK and Continental Europe. After an introduction, which gives an overview of the present European intellectual property law system, the different models of harmonization that are presented by European patent, copyright and trade mark law are analysed. Another section of the book is dedicated to the influence of general EU law, such as the fundamental freedoms or competition law, on intellectual property. The impact of European constitutional law on intellectual property in general and on peer-to-peer filesharing is also investigated. In the following section, judges and academics present their perspectives on the interaction between European and national courts. The final chapters present a theory of a European legal methodology in intellectual property and a synthesis of the preceding chapters. The book's aims are three-fold: first, to generate insights of relevance and application within the fields of European intellectual property and private law generally; second, to contribute to the growing European literature on the feasibility and desirability of a European legal methodology, including the shape that such a methodology might and ought to take; and third, to encourage the use of intellectual property as a case study in private law harmonisation, capable of elucidating the impact of Europeanisation on the substance and quality of law, and of the process of law- and decision-making in a Europeanised system.