This chapter examines dealings in intellectual property (IP) rights. Given the economic importance of IP rights, it is necessary to understand how IP dealings — or transactions — work. The starting point for considering IP transactions is a simple principle — there is a distinction between being the author/creator of the underlying work, invention, mark, or design and being the owner of the right. For this reason, being the author/creator does not necessarily mean that one will always have the ability to enter into transactions with others concerning the work, design, invention, or mark. Generally, it is owners, or their agents/trustees, who will have the power to engage in IP transactions. There are two basic forms of IP dealings: assignment, and licensing. An assignment involves the outright transfer of ownership from the current owner to the new owner. By contrast, a licence is a mere permission to use the IP right.
Chapter
Justine Pila and Paul L.C. Torremans
This chapter deals with the enforcement of IP rights. Such enforcement takes place in search of redress and that redress is obtained in the form of remedies. The discussion focuses on remedies at a national level, i.e. the content of the applicable law determined by the court with competent jurisdiction, be it at a procedural or substantive level. It first looks at civil remedies. Civil proceedings brought by private parties are the norm in the enforcement of private rights, and thus take the lion's share of the enforcement and remedies effort in relation to IP rights, since the latter are very clearly private rights. The chapter then turns to criminal remedies. While criminal proceedings do not play an important role in the area of IP, some offences do exist and these types of proceedings are specifically concerned with cases of infringement that are seen as particularly serious from a public policy point of view. Examples include actions against copyright or trade mark pirates.
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This concluding chapter explores the means available to the owner of an intellectual property (IP) right — whether a patent, trade mark, design, or copyright — to obtain redress for infringement. The law's exclusionary effect typically occurs by means of the claimant IP owner obtaining one or more remedies from a court against the defendant(s). Common remedies include injunctions and monetary compensation in the form of damages/accounts of profit. It is crucial to comprehend that the court, when granting remedies, attempts to strike a balance between the IP holder's rights and the principles of free competition. The chapter then considers the contexts in which IP rights are enforced and what remedies are available to a claimant before the full trial occurs, and what remedies are available to a successful claimant after there has been a substantive court ruling on infringement. It also looks at the problem of counterfeiting.
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This chapter provides an overview of the tension between the application of competition law and the exercise of IPRs. Key issues are the circumstances in which competition law may be applied to moderate the exercise of IPRs in the relevant market; clauses in intellectual property (IP) licensing agreements between undertakings that might be permissible in terms of EU competition law and those which are not; the conditions under which a refusal to supply products protected by an IP right might constitute an abuse of a dominant position by the right holder; and when competition law can provide a defence to an infringement action.
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This book focuses on intellectual property (IP) rights as they apply in the UK, including rights created by the EU. Legal systems around the world have seen fit to create these rights or causes of action to protect intangible concepts such as inventions, literature, brands, designs, and so on. It is said that IP protects the products of the mind, but that does not really apply to brand protection or to the protection of some types of information. As IP rights are so diverse, the theoretical bases for legal protection vary and are dealt with separately in their relevant chapters. However, there are some common approaches, namely, the neo-classical micro-economic theory, rights-based, and other approaches. Common legal topics are dealt with here as they affect more than one IP right. Particular issues flowing from them will be mentioned in the following chapters.
Book
Abbe Brown, Smita Kheria, Jane Cornwell, and Marta Iljadica
Contemporary Intellectual Property: Law and Policy, fifth edition, offers a unique perspective on intellectual property (IP) law, unrivalled amongst IP textbooks. An accessible introduction to IP law, it provides not only a comprehensive account of the substantive law, but also discusses the overarching policies directing the legal decision-making, as well as areas for further debate. Intellectual property law is an increasingly global subject, and the book introduces the relevant European and international dimensions to present a realistic view of the law as it actually operates. It explores IP law as an organic discipline, evaluating the success with which it has responded to new challenges. Images and diagrams, with analysis of key cases and key extracts, are all incorporated alongside the author commentary to clearly illustrate the core principles in IP law. Exercise, questions, and discussion points are provided to help the reader to engage with the material, and additional material is provided in the Online Resources. Beyond providing an up-to-date account of IP law, the text examines the complex policies that inform modern IP law at the domestic (including Scottish), European, and international levels, giving the reader a true insight into the discipline and the shape of things to come. The focus is on contemporary challenges to IP law and policy, and the reader is encouraged to engage critically with the text and the subject matter. The book has been carefully developed to ensure that the complexities of the subject are addressed in a clear and approachable way.
Chapter
Justine Pila and Paul L.C. Torremans
This chapter offers a full and critical account of the arguments for and against the existence of IP systems in general, and of European IP systems in particular. It begins by considering two general theories in support of the recognition of IP rights as natural rights: the first casting IP as supporting the personal development and autonomy of individual creators (the argument from personhood), and the second casting IP as securing for creators such rights as they deserve by virtue of their acts of intellectual creation (the argument from desert). From natural law accounts of the existence of IP the chapter goes on to examine three other theories grounded in considerations of justice, utility, and pluralism respectively. According to the first, IP is defensible as a means of preventing people either from being enriched unjustly or from harming others by unfairly ‘reaping where they have not sown’. According to the second, IP rights are privileges conferred by the state on specific individuals in the pursuit of certain instrumentalist ends, such as encouraging socially desirable behaviour on the part of their beneficiaries or discouraging socially undesirable behaviour on the part of those whose freedoms they restrict. And according to the third, IP is a regulatory mechanism by which different understandings and traditions of protecting creative and informational subject matter are reconciled in support of legal and social pluralism. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the theoretical accounts for the duration of copyright and related rights protection and the patentability of biotechnology.
