Book Description

For anyone with an interest in patent law, intellectual property law generally, and/or the interplay of policy and practice at the forefront of an essentially economic but ideology laden area of law, this is an excellent work providing much food for thought. . . This work is an excellent addition to the literature in the area and will fuel ongoing debate over reform. At the very least it will provide an interesting read for those with an interest in intellectual property law, or who practice in the area. The practice of law can all too easily exhibit the worst attributes of scholasticism; work such as this is an enjoyable remedy, and I recommend this book for all those who care to reflect upon the deeper themes of this area of law and who have an interest in the process of debate as opposed to advocacy for a particular position. . . A decent glass of something along with this book makes for an enjoyable few hours at the very least. Gus Hazel, New Zealand Law Journal The current patent system is both facilitator and stumbling block, as the editors recognise, and the problems raised by borderline inventions at the margins of patentability, as well as the detection and deterrence of free riders, reflect this ambiguity. The editors are to be congratulated on putting together such a good and enjoyable read, complete with a set of conclusions and recommendations. ipkat.com Clearly written in an accessible style, this book brings together economic thinking on innovation and legal thinking on unpatentable invention and sets them in the context of the legal systems in countries in various parts of the world. Its great merit is the emphasis on empirical and institutional analysis of theory and practice. It should inform IP policy-making everywhere. Ruth Towse, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands This book asks whether or not protecting unpatentable innovation is a good idea, especially for developing countries. Edited by well-known specialists from the Queen Mary IP Institute and the Singapore IP Academy, who have included their own substantial contributions, the work contains a number of valuable empirical studies by national experts mainly from the Far East and Latin America on the operation of national utility models and other similar schemes designed to protect innovation outside the patent system. The book is essential reading for lawyers, economists, policy makers and NGOs concerned with how best to encourage national and regional innovation and economic prosperity. David Vaver, University of Oxford, UK Focusing on innovation and development, this book, easy to read and full of interesting detail, provides both valuable insight into the theoretical framework of innovation as supported by intellectual property protection and contains valuable case studies of national systems of innovation in the Pacific Rim States. Thomas Dreier, University of Karlsruhe, Germany This book is concerned with the extent to which innovations should or should not be protected as intellectual property, and the implications this has upon the ability of local manufacturers to learn to innovate. A question the book considers is how far legal protection should extend to inventions that may only just, or indeed not quite, meet the conventional criteria for patentability, in terms of the level of inventiveness. Innovation without Patents offers a thoughtful and empirically rich analysis of the current system in a number of developed and developing countries in the Asia-Pacific. It asks whether such innovations should remain free from patenting, or whether alternative intellectual property regimes should be offered in such cases, and indeed whether the requirements change depending on a country s level of development. This discussion is capped by a number of proposed policy options. The theoretical and practical approaches to intellectual property rights, innovation and development policy formulation make Innovation without Patents acce