Considers the approach to IP under international trade, bio-diversity and climate change law, reviewing the different answers these systems offer to legal questions on the protection of IP and how these approaches may be recognised within the international IP system.

In recent decades, foreign direct investment (FDI) has played an increasingly significant role in world economic activity and development. In economic terms, the accumulated stock of FDI and its generation of commercial activity by foreign affiliates have made FDI comparatively more important than international trade in goods and services. While FDI has experienced long-term steady growth until the recent financial crisis, another powerful trend has been transforming an important part of modern economies: these economies are becoming predominantly 'conceptual', reflecting the vital role of ideas in common and highly valued products and services, and shifting the emphasis in asset valuation from physical to intellectual property (IP). As this trend continues, a similar change can be observed in FDI: foreign investments are reflecting an increasing concentration of intellectual capital invested in knowledge goods protected by intellectual property rights. Thus, IP rights have never been more economically and politically important or controversial than they are today. There have long been international treaties that protect IP, but in recent years other international treaties have come into being that protect IP rights along with other property rights. These treaties include various international investment agreements (IIAs), which regard IP rights as a protected investment. This book will analyse the standards of treatment and protection enshrined in IIAs for IP rights, with reference to topics such as the fragmentation of international law; investor-host-state dispute resolution; investors and investments; relative standards of treatment (such as most favoured nation); absolute standards of treatment (such as fair and equitable treatment); and expropriation. Since many questions regarding the relevance of IIA for IP rights have not been decided yet by investment tribunals, this lack of practice will be addressed by the analysis of hypothetical cases based on actual cases decided by other adjudicating bodies in different legal contexts, such the European Court of Human Rights or the European Court of Justice. Pending proceedings such as Philip Morris and Eli Lilly will also be discussed.

A comprehensive overview of intellectual property law, this handbook will be a vital read for all invested in the field of IP law. Topics include the foundations of IP law; its emergence and development in various jurisdictions; its rules and principles; and current issues arising from the existence and operation of IP law in a political economy.

Co-published by WIPO and the Hague Conference on Private International Law, this guide is a pragmatic tool, written by judges, for judges, examining how private international law operates in intellectual property (IP) matters. Using illustrative references to selected international and regional instruments and national laws, the guide aims to help judges apply the laws of their own jurisdiction, supported by an awareness of key issues concerning jurisdiction of the courts, applicable law, the recognition and enforcement of judgments, and judicial cooperation in cross-border IP disputes.

Identifying the relevant multilateral institutions and multinational organizations involved in particular aspects of international finance and trade often proves to be difficult. This book makes that process easy while providing valuable descriptions of and insights into those institutions and organizations. Chapter topics examine multilateral institutions and organizations: - generally and their major umbrella organization--the United Nations; - concerned with national currencies, national solvency, financial institutions and securities exchange, and international financial transactions and securities; - promoting economic development; - regulating international trade; - dealing with international product and performance standards, standardized legal commercial rules, and common usages and documents through international conventions and treaties, the harmonization of national commercial laws, and accepted sectoral practices; - protecting international intellectual property rights; - managing international environmental, commodities, and natural resources matters; - resolving international disputes; and - involved with other international finance and trade matters. No other book now in print covers this topic. None is likely to ever do so with such thoroughness and clarity. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

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 today’s knowledge-based global economy, most inventions are made by employed persons through their employers’ research and development activities. However, methods of establishing rights over an employee’s intellectual property assets are relatively uncertain in the absence of international solutions. Given that increasingly more businesses establish entities in different countries and more employees co-operate across borders, it becomes essential for companies to be able to establish the conditions under which ownership subsists in intellectual property created in employment relationships in various countries. This comparative law publication describes and analyses employers’ acquisition of employees’ intellectual property rights, first in general and then in depth. This second edition of the book considers thirty-four different jurisdictions worldwide. The book was developed within the framework of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), a non-affiliated, non-profit organization dedicated to improving and promoting the protection of intellectual property at both national and international levels. Among the issues and topics covered by the forty-nine distinguished contributors are the following: • different approaches in different law systems; • choice of law for contracts; • harmonizing international jurisdiction rules; • conditions for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments; • employees’ rights in copyright, semiconductor chips, inventions, designs, plant varieties and utility models on a country-by-country basis; • employee remuneration right; • parties’ duty to inform; and • instances for disputes. With its wealth of information on an increasingly important subject for practitioners in every jurisdiction, this book is sure to be put to constant use by corporate lawyers and in-house counsel everywhere. It is also exceptionally valuable as a thorough resource for academics and researchers interested in the international harmonization of intellectual property law.

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is the most far-reaching and comprehensive legal regime ever concluded at the multilateral level in the area of intellectual property rights (IPR). Compared to prior IPR conventions, TRIPS constitutes a major qualitative leap which radically modifies not only the context in which IPR are considered internationally, but also their substantive content and the methods for their enforcement and dispute settlement. This much-welcomed treatise, now in its third edition, thoroughly updates its comprehensive analysis of the substantive provisions of the Agreement and their actual interpretation and application in different jurisdictions, with new material on the burgeoning case law and on major changes in plant variety protection. As in previous editions, the book may be relied upon for in-depth clarification of such matters as the following: • standards established under the agreement; • enforcement measures; • social and legal issues; • legal and policy possibilities offered; • legislative latitude allowed to WTO Member States; • incorporation of TRIPS into domestic law; • protection of integrated circuit design; • protection of innovation and R&D for diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries; • challenges raised by ongoing technological changes; • access to medicines; • protection of confidential (undisclosed) information; and • interface between competition law and intellectual property protection. With fifteen chapters contributed by a distinguished panel of experts representing diverse parties — international organisations, legal practice, government policy, and academia — the third edition offers an incomparable framework for understanding the background, principles, and complex provisions of the TRIPS Agreement. Thoroughly revised and updated, the third edition will be of great value to all professionals and business people concerned with international trade. It stimulates further discussion and analysis in this area of growing importance to international law and international economic relations, particularly regarding the possibilities offered by the Agreement and the loose ends that may need consideration in the future at the national or international level.

The protection and commercial exploitation of intellectual property rights such as patents, trade marks, designs and copyright are seldom confined to one country and the introduction of a foreign element inevitably raises potential problems of private international law, ranging fromestablishing which court has jurisdiction and which is the applicable law to securing the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. For example, will a foreign defendant be subject to the jurisdiction of the English courts if he induces his English distributor to infringe a patent inEngland? What law will apply to a trade mark licensing agreement made between a German company and a French company where the parties have not expressly chosen whose law governs their contract? And are an author's rights determined by the same law as that governing the issue of the transferabilityof copyright? Although such issues are becoming increasingly important, a dearth of literature exists on the subject. Fawcett and Torremans remedy that neglect and provide a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the topic that will be welcomed by practitioners and scholars alike. From the authors' preface This book is concerned with the application of the rules of private international law to intellectual property cases. Private international lawyers have largely ignored this topic, and it has been left to intellectual property lawyers to discuss this. This is a pity. It is a topic which raisesunique questions for the private international lawyer which deserve an answer, and at the same time tells us much about the rules of private international law that are being applied. The aim of the book is to fill this gap in the literature. The emphasis in the book is on private international lawrather than on intellectual property law. Nonetheless, it is hoped that intellectual property lawyers will find much to interest them here Most of the book is taken up with a discussion of the relevant rules of private international law and their application in the context of intellectual property law. A major theme of the book is the extent to which there are special rules of private international law for this area and whether thereshould be such rules. Alternative private international law solutions will be considered by looking at the law in other jurisdictions and, where appropriate, proposals will be put forward for a better solution This book is part of the Oxford Monographs in Private International Law series, the aim of which is to publish work of high quality and originality in a number of important areas of private international law. The series is intended for both scholarly and practitioner readers.

This volume examines intellectual property (IP) protection in the broader context of international law. Against the background of the debate about norm relations within and between different rule systems in international law, it construes a holistic view of international IP law as an integral part of the international legal system.