This state-of-the-art study argues that reforms to intellectual property (IP) should be based on the ways IP is interacting with new technologies, business models, work patterns and social mores. It identifies emerging IP reform proposals and experiments, indicating first how more rigor and independence can be built into the grant of IP rights so that genuine innovations are recognized. The original contributions illustrate how IP rights can be utilised, through open source licensing systems and private transfers, to disseminate knowledge. Reforms are recommended. The discussion takes in patents, copyright, trade secrets and relational obligations, considering the design of legislative directives, default principles, administrative practices, contractual terms and license specifications. Providing contemporary empirical studies and covering public administration, collective and open approaches, and regulation of private transactions, this comprehensive book will prove a stimulating read for academics and students of law, business and management and development studies. Government policy makers and regulators as well as IP managers and advocates will also find much to provoke thought.

Exploring the potential for alignment as well as conflict between IP and climate change Intellectual Property, Climate Change and Technology encourages a coherent and integrated approach to decision making across the IP, climate change and technology landscape. This groundbreaking book identifies and challenges the lack of intersection between intellectual property law and climate change law at national level. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial}

The convergence of various fields of technology is changing the fabric of society. Big data and data mining, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and blockchains are already affecting business models and leading to a social and economic transformations that have been dubbed by the fourth industrial revolution. Focusing on the framework of intellectual property rights, the contributions to this book analyse how the technical background of this massive transformation affects intellectual property law and policy and how intellectual property is likely to change in order to serve the society. Well-known authorities in intellectual property law offer in-depth chapters on the roles in this revolution of such concepts and actualities as the following: power and role of data as the raw material of the revolution; artificial inventors and creators; trade marks in the dimension of avatars and fictional game characters; concept of inventive step change where the person skilled in the art is virtual; data rights versus intellectual property rights; transparency in the context of big data; interrelations of data, technology transfer and antitrust; self-executable and ‘smart’ contracts; redefining the balance among exclusive rights, development, technology transfer and contracts; and proprietary information versus the public domain. The chapters also provide complete analyses of how big data changes decision-making processes, how sustainable development requires redefinition, how technology transfer is re-emerging as technology diffusion and how the role of contracts and blockchain as instruments of monitoring and enforcement are being defined. Offering the first in-depth legal commentary and analysis of this highly topical issue, the book approaches the fourth industrial revolution from the perspectives of technical background, society and law. Its authoritative analysis of how the data-driven economy influences innovation and technology transfer is without peer. It will be welcomed by practicing lawyers in intellectual property rights and competition law, as well as by academics, think tanks and policymakers.

As the world confronts global warming, there is a growing consensus that the TRIPS Agreement could be a more effective instrument for mitigating climate change. In this innovative work, Wei Zhuang systematically examines the contextual elements that can be used in the interpretation of the TRIPS Agreement with a view to enhancing innovation and transfer of environmentally sound technologies. Zhuang proposes a balanced and pro-competitive interpretation that could be pursued by policymakers and negotiators. This comprehensive, multidisciplinary study will help academics and policymakers improve their understanding of the contemporary international legal regimes governing intellectual property rights, as well as innovation and transfer of environmentally sound technologies. It also offers practical guidance for further developing a legal system capable of responding to the challenges posed by climate change.

'An historically grounded study on a cutting-edge topic, Intellectual Property and Climate Change has it all. Not only is it well-written, concise, and hugely informative, it is also a timely intervention addressing truly global challenges. Quite simply, a must-read.' Eva Hemmungs Wirtén, Uppsala University, Sweden 'Rimmer provides a much needed, well written, authoritative book on the intellectual property aspects of climate change, natural disasters, clean vehicles, and renewable energy. The book is essential reading for those wishing to better understand the complex patent issues involved with transitioning away from our current fossil-dominated economy to a more environmentally sustainable and equitable energy future.' Benjamin K. Sovacool, National University of Singapore In the wake of the international summits in Copenhagen and Cancún, there is an urgent need to consider the role of intellectual property law in encouraging research, development, and diffusion of clean technologies to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. This book charts the patent landscapes and legal conflicts emerging in a range of fields of innovation including renewable forms of energy, such as solar power, wind power, and geothermal energy; as well as biofuels, green chemistry, green vehicles, energy efficiency, and smart grids. As well as reviewing key international treaties, this book provides a detailed analysis of current trends in patent policy and administration in key nation states, and offers clear recommendations for law reform. It considers such options as technology transfer, compulsory licensing, public sector licensing, and patent pools; and analyses the development of Climate Innovation Centres, the Eco-Patent Commons, and environmental prizes, such as the L-Prize, the H-Prize, and the X-Prizes. This book will have particular appeal to policy-makers given its focus upon recent legislative developments and reform proposals, as well as legal practitioners by developing a better understanding of recent legal, scientific, and business developments, and how they affect their practice. Innovators, scientists and researchers will also benefit from reading this book.

This book reflects on the development of Nigeria’s intellectual property law and outlines the urgent need for reform. Bringing together expert contributors from around the world, the book identifies and discusses the inadequacies and lacunas in current intellectual property law, and how it is practiced and applied in Nigeria. The book argues that the revision and reform of Nigeria’s intellectual property law will be vital for the country’s development and national interests, whilst also recognising that Nigeria’s legal provisions must sit within a broader global context. Divided into three parts, the book discusses patents, trademarks, and copyright in the context of broad overarching themes affecting all aspects of intellectual property law. Honouring Professor Adebambo Adewopo SAN, the pioneering thinker in Nigerian intellectual property law, this book will be an important resource for researchers working on African Law.

Across the world, developing countries are attempting to balance the international standards of intellectual property concerning pharmaceutical patents against the urgent need for accessible and affordable medicines. In this timely and necessary book, Monirul Azam examines the attempts of several developing countries to walk this fine line. He evaluates the experiences of Brazil, China, India, and South Africa for lessons to guide Bangladesh and developing nations everywhere. Azam's legal expertise, concern for public welfare, and compelling grasp of principal case studies make Intellectual Property and Public Health in the Developing World a definitive work. The developing world is striving to meet the requirements of the World Trade Organization's TRIPS Agreement on intellectual property. This book sets out with lucidity and insight the background of the TRIPS Agreement and its implications for pharmaceutical patents, the consequences for developing countries, and the efforts of certain representative nations to comply with international stipulations while still maintaining local industry and public health. Azam then brings the weight of this research to bear on the particular case of Bangladesh, offering a number of specific policy recommendations for the Bangladeshi government—and for governments the world over. Intellectual Property and Public Health in the Developing World is a must-read for public policy-makers, academics and students, non-governmental organizations, and readers everywhere who are interested in making sure that developing nations meet the health care needs of their people.

Professor Litman's work stands out as well-researched, doctrinally solid, and always piercingly well-written.-JANE GINSBURG, Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property, Columbia UniversityLitman's work is distinctive in several respects: in her informed historical perspective on copyright law and its legislative policy; her remarkable ability to translate complicated copyright concepts and their implications into plain English; her willingness to study, understand, and take seriously what ordinary people think copyright law means; and her creativity in formulating alternatives to the copyright quagmire. -PAMELA SAMUELSON, Professor of Law and Information Management; Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, University of California, BerkeleyIn 1998, copyright lobbyists succeeded in persuading Congress to enact laws greatly expanding copyright owners' control over individuals' private uses of their works. The efforts to enforce these new rights have resulted in highly publicized legal battles between established media and new upstarts.In this enlightening and well-argued book, law professor Jessica Litman questions whether copyright laws crafted by lawyers and their lobbyists really make sense for the vast majority of us. Should every interaction between ordinary consumers and copyright-protected works be restricted by law? Is it practical to enforce such laws, or expect consumers to obey them? What are the effects of such laws on the exchange of information in a free society?Litman's critique exposes the 1998 copyright law as an incoherent patchwork. She argues for reforms that reflect common sense and the way people actually behave in their daily digital interactions.This paperback edition includes an afterword that comments on recent developments, such as the end of the Napster story, the rise of peer-to-peer file sharing, the escalation of a full-fledged copyright war, the filing of lawsuits against thousands of individuals, and the June 2005 Supreme Court decision in the Grokster case.Jessica Litman (Ann Arbor, MI) is professor of law at Wayne State University and a widely recognized expert on copyright law.

This book analyses the governance foundations of innovation, brands, inventions, secrets and expression, which are the keys to a century based on knowledge. They are reflected in legal rights that have been fermenting over centuries of national policy deliberations on intellectual property rights, constantly in flux in the face of new advances in science, but overall a trend towards greater protectionism. As countries are challenged by the strictures of international agreements, often extorted through imbalanced power relationships, they seek their own national means for beneficial differentiation from the new global norms, whilst complying with international obligations. This book deals with the outcomes of regional governance of intellectual property, which often creates ripples in the search for harmony in the laws that form the basis for the future of intellectual property. The work has contributions that come from developing and developed nations, showing a common theme of the struggle to find the balance in an area of law that often does not provide clearcut solutions to real world environments. There are many intellectual property struggles illustrated in this work: patent at the boundaries of nature and invention, the need for drug development, which is driven by profit based on the patent monopoly; copyright, the expression of original thought, seeking to maximise exposure facilitated by the internet, but a system that facilitates rampant copying; trade marks, supporting company branding, seeks to exploit global branding through naming domains names; and other areas concomitant to the globalisation of intellectual property governance, such as foreign direct investment. This book holds up a mirror to the issues of world governance of intellectual property rights in this century, asking whether the direction we are currently following is in the best interest of global citizens, and showing the divergence that constraints are stimulating on a national level.

Intellectual property law is built on constitutional foundations and is underpinned by the twin freedoms of freedom of expression and freedom of economic enterprise. In this thoughtful evaluation, Gustavo Ghidini offers up a reconstruction of the core features of each intellectual property paradigm, including patents, copyright, and trademarks, suggesting measures for reform to allow intellectual property to become socially beneficial for all.