The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law


Book Description

In The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Intellectual Property, prominent intellectual property scholar Dan Hunter provides a precise, engaging overview and careful analysis of current laws of intellectual property and their history. Hunter first focuses on the central areas of intellectual property law, including copyright, patent, trademark, and trade secrets. He then explores the politics, economics, psychology and rhetoric of possession and control that influence and interact with this area of law. Hunter explains how intellectual property has contributed greatly to the innovations that we, as a society, need in our modern lives. He also describes ways in which the expansion of intellectual property can reduce innovation by stopping others from implementing great ideas or producing new work. Hunter helps readers think about modern intellectual property in a way that allows them to see how innovation and progress are linked to intellectual property law, and how small changes in the laws have had significant consequences for our society. Ultimately, Hunter helps readers form their own views about the various areas within the arena of intellectual property.




Security Rights in Intellectual Property


Book Description

This book discusses the main legal and economic challenges to the creation and enforcement of security rights in intellectual property and explores possible avenues of reform, such as more specific rules for security in IP rights and better coordination between intellectual property law and secured transactions law. In the context of business financing, intellectual property rights are still only reluctantly used as collateral, and on a small scale. If they are used at all, it is mostly done in the form of a floating charge or some other “all-asset” security right. The only sector in which security rights in intellectual property play a major role, at least in some jurisdictions, is the financing of movies. On the other hand, it is virtually undisputed that security rights in intellectual property could be economically valuable, or even crucial, for small and medium-sized enterprises – especially for start-ups, which are often very innovative and creative, but have limited access to corporate financing and must rely on capital markets (securitization, capital market). Therefore, they need to secure bank loans, yet lack their own traditional collateral, such as land.




Intellectual Property Law


Book Description

This is a general reference book for authors, artists, musicians, librarians, entrepreneurs and others interested in learning about intellectual property law and the processes for obtaining copyrights, trademarks and patents in the U.S. and other countries through international agreements. It is designed to be a one-stop reference guide that provides information and guidance for individuals considering obtaining copyrights, patents and/or trademarks on their own or with the assistance of an attorney. The main text provides an orientation to the relevant law and the process and cost of applying for patents and trademarks through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and copyrights through the U.S. Copyright Office. This book provides a wealth of resources that include illustrations, an index, links to online resources, selective statutory materials, sample forms, and other useful materials in appendices to provide greater depth and context for the material presented in the main text. This accessible, practical reference book will provide timely, useful information and identify additional resources available free of charge from both the federal government and every state. It does not offer legal advice and is intended to supplement rather than supplant the legal advice and individualized guidance that can only be provided by an attorney.




Intellectual Property Rights in Times of Crisis


Book Description

The book investigates varying experiences from the pandemic, providing a unique prism for assessing how IP balances competing requirements of innovation and access in times of crisis. Providing novel insight into the underlying principles of IP and how these cope under extreme pressures, Intellectual Property Rights in Times of Crisis will be an ideal read for scholars and students of intellectual property as well as those with an interest in health law and disaster law and health care law.




Art and Law - a Comprehensive Guide to South African Art Law


Book Description

This handbook aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the multi-faceted art law within the legal framework applicable to South Africa. In four 'phases', it provides answers to legal questions that arise from the initiation of an art project up to its exploitation. It is aimed at both law students who have an academic interest in an in-depth introduction to art law and practitioners from the art world, and is therefore equipped with numerous explanatory examples. The contents were prepared by students of the Art Law Clinic Stellenbosch and revised by the editors mentioned below.




Fundamentals of United States Intellectual Property Law Copyright, Patent, and Trademark


Book Description

Completely revised and updated, this sixth edition of a well-received desk reference offers in one volume a comprehensive review of United States (US) copyright, patent, and trademark laws. Like its previous editions, the book’s thorough and sophisticated treatment of this complex material escapes the cumbersome overelaboration of a multivolume treatise on the one hand and a superficial “nutshell” on the other. Maintaining the systematic structure that makes it easy for users to zero in on any particular matter, the new edition incorporates the changes that have entered into force since the fifth edition and expertly examines their effects. The three major categories of copyright, patent, and trademark are covered in turn—along with a fourth section on chip protection—with detailed but concise examination and analysis of such issues and topics as the following and much more: • subject matter of protection; • conditions of protection; • registration procedures; • scope of exclusive rights; • transfer of interests; • fair use; • rights in unregistered marks; • protection of computer software, code, and databases; • remedies and defenses; and • procedural issues in infringement actions. The authors examine significant case law, updated for this edition, in the course of their analysis. With its detailed citations and readily accessible and complete subject coverage, this latest edition is sure to retain its usefulness as a quick reference or desk book for intellectual property practitioners, in-house counsel, patent agents, academics, and librarians, as well as for anyone interested in understanding US intellectual property law.




Lion's Share


Book Description

In the aftermath of apartheid, South Africa undertook an ambitious revision of its intellectual property system. In Lion’s Share Veit Erlmann traces the role of copyright law in this process and its impact on the South African music industry. Although the South African government tied the reform to its postapartheid agenda of redistributive justice and a turn to a postindustrial knowledge economy, Erlmann shows how the persistence of structural racism and Euro-modernist conceptions of copyright threaten the viability of the reform project. In case studies ranging from antipiracy police raids and the crafting of legislation to protect indigenous expressive practices to the landmark lawsuit against Disney for its appropriation of Solomon Linda’s song "Mbube" for its hit “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” from The Lion King, Erlmann follows the intricacies of musical copyright through the criminal justice system, parliamentary committees, and the offices of a music licensing and royalty organization. Throughout, he demonstrates how copyright law is inextricably entwined with race, popular music, postcolonial governance, indigenous rights, and the struggle to create a more equitable society.




The Making of Modern Intellectual Property Law


Book Description

One of the common themes in recent public debate has been the law's inability to accommodate the new ways of creating, distributing and replicating intellectual products. In this book the authors argue that in order to understand many of the problems currently confronting the law, it is necessary to understand its past. This is its first detailed historical account. In this book the authors explore two related themes. First, they explain why intellectual property law came to take its now familiar shape with sub-categories of patents, copyright, designs and trade marks. Secondly, the authors set out to explain how it is that the law grants property status to intangibles. In doing so they explore the rise and fall of creativity as an organising concept in intellectual property law, the mimetic nature of intellectual property law and the important role that the registration process plays in shaping intangible property.