Thread View: misc.int-property
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Started by David Freedman
Tue, 02 Mar 1999 00:00
Which IT-Related Policy Issues Will be Most Important for IP Law in the Next Decade?
Author: David Freedman
Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 00:00
Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 00:00
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Dear All I�m a research fellow in IP law at University of Cambridge, and am requesting your views on a subject which I have been asked to address before a fairly sophisticated group. The actual question is something like "Who Will Own What IPRs: Legal Implications of Emerging Information Technologies For British Business," with the emphasis on government policy decisions that will have to be taken soon. In any case, I�ve often benefited in the past from informal discussions with colleagues on points of law and practice, and (with some hesitation) I thought this might be an opportune moment to try out the process in cyberspace. Just to be crystal clear and avoid any unnecessary unpleasantness, I should say that I am familiar with the literature and jurisprudence and am certainly not asking anyone to do my work.. I just thought it might be interesting to solicit views in this forum on the issues that you yourself think will raise the important questions of policy in the next decade or so relative to the question posed. I would be grateful to anyone who would care to respond. If you are affiliated with any particular industry group or organisation, please advise me of that as well - it wouldn�t detract from your opinion but would be interesting to note. If the responses warrant it, I thought it might be nice to include in the presentation some reflection that this discussion took place and whether any consensus of opinion was reached on any of the issues one way or another. I would prefer reply by e-mail unless this would be a topic that others feel is of sufficient general interest to be addressed openly here. Best wishes to all David Freedman cdf25@cam.ac.uk Herchel Smith Research Fellow in the Law of Intellectual Property Emmanuel College University of Cambridge
Re: Which IT-Related Policy Issues Will be Most Important for IP Law in the Next Decade?
Author: Stuart Geary
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 00:00
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David Freedman <dfreedmn@dircon.co.uk> wrote in article <36dc3eec.0@newsread3.dircon.co.uk>... > Dear All > > I�m a research fellow in IP law at University of Cambridge, and am > requesting your views on a subject which I have been asked to address before > a fairly sophisticated group. The actual question is something like "Who > Will Own What IPRs: Legal Implications of Emerging Information Technologies > For British Business," with the emphasis on government policy decisions that > will have to be taken soon. > I should be grateful for clarification of the issues. "Who will own what IPRs?" is ambiguous. It may be that the intention is simply to consider how ownership of patents, trade marks, designs and copyrights with be divided up between E-businesses. There is also the possibility that you are asking whether there will be new rights arising. Regarding ownership, the obvious answer is that those companies that invest in creation or buy in rights to other's IP will own the IP - same as always. To what extent these rights will be owned by British companies will depend on the attitude taken by British managements to risk. My guess is that British industry will have the same relatively low patent filing rate in emerging IT as in other areas but that it will be well represented in the ownership of copyrights by analogy with the UK's strong position in the music and computer games industries (no costs involved in obtaining copyright so the accountants love it). Short of the government paying to patent applications (possible Treaty of Rome issues), I'm not sure what difference its policy decisions will make. Also, IP statute law largely develops at a supra-national level now so the scope for action of a single state is limited. It seems to me that the fun will arise in enforcing rights, particularly patents, where the "infringing" act is spread across several jusridictions, as may be the case with an invention relating to the Web. Does the Brussels Convention help? Will UK courts continue to avoid accepting jurisdiction for patent infringement in other countries because they cannot address validity of foreign patents. Well just something to start the ball rolling. - Stuart Chartered and European Patent Attorney
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