The Innovation Society and Intellectual Property

Taking a multi-angled view of the topic, this book questions whether IP rights by definition encourage innovation and explores the role of exceptions and limitations to IP rights as well as the application of competition law to promote innovation. Chapters analyse diverse topics within the field of IP such as plant varieties protection, geographical indications and 3D printing. Taken as a whole this book advocates that a pro-innovation rationale must be applied when new IP legislation is designed.

This book will be an engaging source of information for researchers and policy-makers with an interest in the direction of IP legislation and the promotion of innovation. It will also be relevant for scholars of competition law who are seeking information on the relationship between competition and IP.

Intellectual property (IP) rights impact innovation in diverse ways. This book critically analyses whether additional rights beyond patents, trademarks and copyrights are needed to promote innovation. Featuring contributions from thought-leaders in the field of IP, this book examines the check and balances that already exist in the IP system to safeguard innovation and questions to what extent existing IP regimes are capable of catering to new paradigms of innovation and creativity.

'''Does IPR boost or hamper innovation?''. This has been asked many times over the years. This extraordinary book asks the question again but without any attempt to provide for a straight-forward answer. Instead it relies on an impressive line-up of IPR legal scholars to show the reader where to look for answers and it points to ways of thinking about the complex relationship between IPR and innovation. Remarkably it does so without diminishing the complexities or taking anything for granted.'
--Jens Schovsbo, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

'Innovation is key for the development of our industrialised society. This is often complemented with the idea that IP is an essential tool to stimulate innovation. This volume puts that concept to the test. Did the expansion of IP stimulate innovation or is there a need to limit the scope of IP and give preference to the public domain? And where does open innovation and user-generated content fit in? All the answers are here and they are an exciting read.'
--Paul Torremans, University of Nottingham, UK