Development Of Intellectual Property Law Research Articles

Developments in Intellectual Property Law: October 1, 2013 - September 30, 2014

Developments in Intellectual Property Law: October 1, 2013 - September 30, 2014

Intellectual Property and the Common Law in Scotland C.1700-C.1850

A significant Scottish dimension is apparent in the development of what we would now call intellectual property in the United Kingdom after the Union of 1707. With both patents and copyright under the Statute of Anne, however, that Scottish dimension was always seen in the context of the single market created by the Union; and this was occasionally reinforced by House of Lords cases as well as by the legislature. In Scotland itself there were also issues about how to understand these developing rights within the systematics of Scots law, in particular the doctrine of real rights. While this did not prevent the development of a unified substantive patent law for the United Kingdom long before the abolition of separate Scots and English patents in 1852, there were significant effects in the debate about the existence of rights at common law, beyond grants made under the royal prerogative or by virtue of United Kingdom legislation. The effects were not limited to the literary property arena. The notions of protecting reputation and privacy rather than rights of property also helped from early in the nineteenth century to follow the English development of a concept of a right to protect confidentiality, preventing or sanctioning the taking and use or disclosure of another’s confidential information. Similarly the unauthorised use of badges of another’s trading identity and reputation would provide the platform from which Scots law would move in the second half of the nineteenth century to use the English concept of passing off. But in both common law developments it generally remained clear (as it did not with literary property) that their basis in Scots law was in personal rights, whether by way of delict or contract, and not in any form of property in the confidential information or the badges of identity. It was, however, always a comfort for the Scottish courts that here, as with patents and copyright, the results produced by this different approach were generally in line with those that would be reached in England. The United Kingdom was the inescapable backcloth to the development of intellectual property law.

Recent Developments in Intellectual Property Law in Nigeria

Key Point – This article provides an overview of the developments in the field of Intellectual Property (IP) in Nigeria and highlights key issues in 10 recent judgments on IP Law in Nigeria. The cases are organized thematically according to the type of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) protected under the Nigerian legal system such as trademarks, copyrights, patents, and designs. Practical Significance – To provide a practical insight into the laws and practice of IPR in Nigeria through the review of decided cases & reported judgments. Within the limits of candor, brevity and clarity, I have attempted as much as possible to summarize the cases reviewed.

Development of intellectual property laws for the Russian Federation

In most industrialized nations, the concept and body of intellectual property laws is well into its third century of development and testing. The Russian Federation, however, has created and implemented an entirely new body of intellectual property law since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992. As American and other western firms work with the Russian Federation as a supplier and customer, they must recognize that the new nation has abandoned a legal philosophy denying the existence of intellectual property in favor of intellectual property laws recognizing and favoring private development and ownership of such property. This paper examines the Russian intellectual property laws and points out adaptations that western nations should make when dealing with similar entities in the Russian Federation. The study assumes familiarity with Russian history, language, and geography. A caution to domestic firms is that they should retain experienced legal counsel to deal with negotiations and contracts with Russian business interests.

Developments in Intellectual Property Law

Developments in Intellectual Property Law

Seizures of In Transit Generics at the EU Borders: India and Brazil v. the EU

This section is devoted to giving readers an inside view of the crossing point between intellectual property (IP) law and risk regulation. In addition to updating readers on the latest developments in IP law and policies in technological fields (including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, agriculture and foodstuffs), the section aims at verifying whether such laws and policies really stimulate scientific and technical progress and are capable of minimising the risks posed by on-going industrial developments to individuals’ health and safety, inter alia.

University Education and Intellectual Property in the Digital Era

The national level of Intellectual Property Law covers national legislation and policy as well as common law, while at the international level it covers international treaties and conventions to which Botswana is a signatory. The Mission of the University of Botswana is to advance the intellectual and human resource capacity of the nation and the international community. In this regard, the goal of this paper is that the University plays a central role in the development of intellectual property law and policy and in the protection of intellectual property at the University and the nation at large. The University must articulate its position on intellectual property issues so as to influence national policy and legislation as well as international developments in intellectual property in the digital era. The area that greatly affects the University of Botswana in its core business is copyright. Accordingly, this paper focuses mainly on issues arising in copyright especially in the digital era and how they affect the University’s core business. The paper covers the duration of copyright, licensing agreements, the cost of digital information, the preservation of digital information, distance learning, the protection of indigenous knowledge systems, and the development of intellectual property education.

The Case of Plain Packaging of Cigarettes

This section is devoted to giving readers an inside view of the crossing point between intellectual property (IP) law and risk regulation. In addition to updating readers on the latest developments in IP law and policies in technological fields (including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, agriculture and foodstuffs), the section aims at verifying whether such laws and policies really stimulate scientific and technical progress and are capable of minimising the risks posed by on-going industrial developments to individuals’ health and safety, inter alia.

On the Value of Copyright Theory

Arguments favouring conferring property rights on intellectual creations are manifold. They contain great value for development of intellectual property systems and shaping their limits. This Article argues that any system of property rights, in particular systems allocating exclusive rights in cultural and authorial commodities, will properly address the many social concerns emerging from this allocation, only if a balance between theory and practice is established. I shall argue that theoretical considerations should be invited into contemporary discussions on the future of intellectual property regimes more often. This Article argues that theoretical considerations are the building blocs of every ideology of intellectual property, and defends the argument that isolating the practical development of intellectual property laws from theoretical considerations runs the risk of widening the gap between perceived benefits and social costs. This Article holds the view that theory and practice have to be balanced. It reviews the main approaches dominating the landscape of copyright theory and highlights the benefits we can exert from theory when we talk copyright law and policy.

Medical Methods, Risks to Public Health and Exclusion from Patentability

This section is devoted to giving readers an inside view of the crossing point between intellectual property (IP) law and risk regulation. In addition to updating readers on the latest developments in IP law and policies in technological fields (including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, agriculture and foodstuffs), the section aims at verifying whether such laws and policies really stimulate scientific and technical progress and are capable of minimising the risks posed by on-going industrial developments to individuals' health and safety, inter alia.

Intellectual Property

This section is devoted to giving readers an inside view of the crossing point between intellectual property (IP) law and risk regulation. In addition to updating readers on the latest developments in IP law and policies in technological fields (including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, agriculture and foodstuffs), the section aims at verifying whether such laws and policies really stimulate scientific and technical progress and are capable of minimising the risks posed by on-going industrial developments to individuals’ health and safety, inter alia.

Recent developments in intellectual property law in Australia with some reference to the global economy

This paper by Susan Crennan, Justice of the High Court of Australia, addresses developments in Australia in intellectual property law, with some reference to the global economy, and deals with two patent cases, two copyright cases and a designs case. The paper was original presented as a lecture at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and is published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London.

Recent Developments in Intellectual Property Law

Recent Developments in Intellectual Property Law

Parallel Trade of Pharmaceuticals: A Review of Legal, Economic, and Political Aspects

Objectives An overview of the status quo of parallel trade of pharmaceuticals (pharmaceutical parallel trade [PPT]) was performed. The different economic, political, and legal viewpoints as well as the public health perspective are being taken into consideration. Analysis is being undertaken on a worldwide level, focusing on the situation of Switzerland in the context of current developments in the United States as well as in the European Union (EU). Methods Desktop analysis using publicly available information (e.g., scientific literature, congress reports, official statistical databases) was performed during the years 2006 through 2007. Such gathered information was compiled and systematically structured to allow a crude overview of the development of intellectual property law in the last 100 years (as a prerequisite under which PPT legally can exist) as well as a description of the health economic and political context in which PPT is set currently. Results It could be shown that PPT is an ubiquitous phenomenon, appearing in industrialized countries as well as in the developing world. Economically, it has gained a significant weight in substantial parts of the EU in the last decade. This has to be seen in the context of EU efforts of enhanced economic and political integration. The worldwide constant growth of health-care expenditures, with its strain on national health-care budgets, has led to increased discussions about the necessity and consequences including possible dangers of PPT, namely, in the United States and in Switzerland, where up to now PPT has been only of marginal importance. Conclusions The analysis of the value of PPT depends strongly on the importance that is given to different perspectives by the individual analyst. It is clear that an item-centered view of PPT is not able to analyze this phenomenon in an equitable way. Further attempts have to be made to standardize evaluation as well as to increase available information to empower science and decision-makers to perform objective analyses and informed decisions.

Developments in Intellectual Property Law

Over the survey period, Congress enacted and President Obama signed into law significant changes in the Patent Act. These changes, both substantive and procedural, usher in a new set of issues and considerations involved in obtaining and defending patent rights. While these statutory changes (and the regulatory changes to be expected from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)) constitute the most tangible example, several cases of practical value to Indiana legal practitioners and those concerned with technology development have also come down. The summary and analytical review provided in this Article will assist lawyers, inventors, technology managers and others concerned with protection of intellectual property.

Intellectual Property and Coerced Exchanges

The increasing significance of information in world economy has raised importance of issues related to intellectual property. It also has resulted in rapid development of intellectual property law. While some work on philosophical foundations of intellectual property has been done, field remains relatively fertile. The most obvious setting within which to justify intellectual property is in context of justifying property in general. However, full justification for intellectual property must also include an examination of kind of commodities in question. That is, what justifies intellectual property must not only reference what justifies ownership, but it also must outline sorts of things that can or should be considered property. Finally, understanding what rightly might be considered property must take into consideration circumstances of exchange in order to establish a fully moral regime for intellectual property.This paper raises a number of considerations important to each stage of justification of intellectual property. It first outlines two traditions for justifying property, utilitarianism and liberal-libertarian tradition, and it raises questions for both. Second, it examines a category of commodities that Margaret Jane Radin labels commodities.1 These are commodities that many believe are not or should not be fully included within a free market property regime, and which, by their nature or by our views of them, resist complete commodification. Examples of contested commodities are people-particularly babies-sex, reproductive capacity, labor, body parts, and, I will argue, ideas.Finally, regardless of whether or not a commodity is contested, circumstances of exchange must be considered when thinking about shape or extent of property rights. Combined, moral significance of circumstances of exchange and extent to which commodity is contested illuminate practical morality of property regimes and place of intellectual property in them. This paper's conclusion is that although intellectual property is not as contested as life and body parts, it is at least as contested as basic liberties and labor. Consequently, prevailing circumstances in control and exchange of intellectual property make existing property regime either unjustified or difficult to justify.The positive arguments appearing in this paper have an affinity with views of Kant, Hegel, and Radin. All three of these authors base their justification of right to property on concept of personhood.2 Their views do not fit neatly into two moral traditions examined in first part of paper. So paper will, along way, outline this third tradition.Two Traditions Justifying PropertyPerhaps first way in which people think about justifying intellectual property is based on desert. People quickly assume that inventors should receive whatever benefits accrue from their inventions. It is only after recognizing that most inventions are embodiments of ideas-and that ideas are rather peculiar objects-that people begin to question simple notion of desert. For example, ideas are not created in a vacuum and so no one is solely responsible for them. Hence, no one alone should own or control benefits proceeding from idea. To overcome this particular problem, many people either reject (or mitigate) rights of the or they seek to justify rights of inventor with a utilitarian argument.The utilitarian justification of property was prefigured by Hume3 and later, a full formulation came from Bentham.4 This strand of thinking has lasted to present.5 Roughly put, utilitarian justification of intellectual property maintains that authors and inventors must be granted intellectual property rights and must expect to receive benefits of bringing their work to market so that society might benefit from new ideas and products based on them. …

How do intellectual property law and international trade agreements affect access to antiretroviral therapy?

In recent years, globalization has forced a deeper appreciation of the relationship between intellectual property (IP) law and global health. The threat of an emergent avian bird flu pandemic led to calls for Roche to relax patent restrictions on oseltamivir, a drug with potential efficacy against bird influenza [1,2]. In the context of the fall 2001 anthrax attacks, the US government faced pressure to break Bayer's patent on ciprofloxacin in order to increase availability of the drug [3]. Such situations have generated intense debate over the value of patent protection amidst health crises. Nowhere have these debates been more intense than around the issue of global access to HIV treatment. Multinational pharmaceutical companies, World Trade Organization (WTO) members, US and European Union trade representatives, and health-care activists have clashed over provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) to people living with AIDS in developing countries. The debate centers upon the value and role of patents obtained for HIV-related pharmaceutical products, drug-manufacturing techniques, and forms of drug delivery. These arguments have recently intensified amidst an increased US pursuit of bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade agreements—which include strong IP provisions—with low- and middle-income countries throughout the world. In this paper, we examine the key areas of concern regarding access to ART related to US-negotiated bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade agreements. We first examine developments in IP law in the wake of WTO's Doha Declaration, which affirmed the priority of public health over the protection of patents. We look specifically at those developments with particular salience for health-related issues and link this history with the current context of access to antiretrovirals (ARVs) worldwide. Next we map out the key claims about, and questions surrounding, the role of patent law, followed by a critical look at the impact of trade agreements on IP law and their potential threat to global health. Finally, we suggest policy and advocacy strategies to ensure and promote access to ART in the era of US-led attempts to strengthen global IP law through the vehicle of “free” trade agreements.

Recent Developments in Intellectual Property Law

College; J.D., 1996, Indiana University School of Law—Indianapolis. 1. 17 U.S.C. §§ 101-1008 (1994 & Supp. III 1997). 2. IND. CODE §§ 24-2-3-1 to -8 (1998). 3. 35 U.S.C. § 101 (1994). 4. See, e.g., Diamond v. Diehr, 450 U.S. 175, 182 (1981) (holding that “laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas” are unpatentable subject matter); Rubber-Tip Pencil Co. v. Howard, 87 U.S. (20 Wall.) 498, 507 (1874) (“An idea of itself is not patentable, but a new device by which it may be made practically useful is.”). 5. 35 U.S.C. § 100(b) (1994). RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

Thoughts on the Fetishization of Cyberspeech and the Turn from “Public” to “Private” Law

In this paper I critically examine recent developments in intellectual property law. In particular, from a point of view informed primarily by Marx and Foucault, I study (a) the rhetoric surrounding the Metallica lawsuit against Napster; (b) a pair of conflicting trademark cases surrounding the ownership of a word on the Internet; and (c) the software industry's move to win approval for shrink-wrap or click here licenses. I conclude that these developments indicate a new form of disciplinary power, where people are individuated ex ante as consumers. Despite the celebrations of market cyberlibertarians, this move actually masks an increase in overt state power as the state apparatus is invoked to force individuals to agree to behave as disciplined consumers and accede to the system in the first place.

The Human Rights Implications of Intellectual Property Protection

A variety of human rights organizations and agencies have begun to realize that the manner in which creative works, cultural heritage, and scientific knowledge are turned into property has implications for human rights. These concerns have led to a series of initiatives by United Nations human rights institutions, the most significant of which is the November 2001 statement on 'Human Rights and Intellectual Property Issues' adopted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Its central theme is that intellectual property protection and international trade regulation must respect and abide by international human rights law. This article outlines the provisions of a human rights perspective on the requirements for intellectual property and then discusses its potential conflicts with current developments in intellectual property law. Copyright Oxford University Press 2002, Oxford University Press.