Editors --Contributors --Foreword --Preface --Pharmaceutical Patents and Competition Issues --What Is Going on in National Systems?

This book explores the interface between intellectual property and human rights law and policy. The relationship between these two fields has captured the attention of governments, policymakers, and activist communities in a diverse array of international and domestic political and judicial venues. These actors often raise human rights arguments as counterweights to the expansion of intellectual property in areas including freedom of expression, public health, education, privacy, agriculture, and the rights of indigenous peoples. At the same time, creators and owners of intellectual property are asserting a human rights justification for the expansion of legal protections. This book explores the legal, institutional, and political implications of these competing claims: by offering a framework for exploring the connections and divergences between these subjects; by identifying the pathways along which jurisprudence, policy, and political discourse are likely to evolve; and by serving as an educational resource for scholars, activists, and students.

The purpose of this book is to examine the experience of a number of countries in grappling with the problems of reconciling the two fields of competition policy and intellectual property rights. The first part of the book indicates the variation in legislative models as well as the wide variety of judicial and administrative doctrines that have been used. The jurisdictions selected for study are the three major trading blocks with the longest experience of case law (the EU, the USA and Japan) and three less populous countries with open economies (Australia, Ireland and Singapore). In the second part of the book we look at a number of issues closely related to the interface between competition law and intellectual property rights. Separate chapters analyse the issue of parallel trading and exhaustion of IPRs, the issue of technology transfer, and the economics of the interface between intellectual property and competition law.

ÔAbbe BrownÕs new work provides a welcome and extremely valuable addition of the human rights dimension to the long standing conflict over essential technologies between intellectual property and competition law.Õ Ð Steven Anderman, University of Essex, UK and University of Stockholm, Sweden ÔMuch has been written on the flexibilities available within the intellectual property system to address development and social needs. This book goes a step further: it explores how greater access to essential technologies can be ensured through human rights and competition law. Although the analysis is focused on UK and the European Union, the book provides valuable insights for assessing the situation in other jurisdictions. The author suggests an innovative approach for courts and legislators to overcome, in the light of public interest considerations, the limits imposed by intellectual property rights. This book is a much welcomed contribution to academic and policy debates on the subject.Õ Ð Carlos M. Correa, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina ÔIntellectual property interacts (or clashes?) with human rights and competition law. The refreshing bit about this book is that a detailed practical approach to the inevitable balancing act is proposed. Abbe Brown explains how a human rights approach is the cornerstone of such a balancing approach and how positive results can be achieved towards unblocking essential technologies. And it can be done in the existing international legal framework, even if the latter could be improved. Well-researched, challenging and interesting reading!Õ Ð Paul Torremans, University of Nottingham, UK ÔAbbe BrownÕs study starts from the assumption that IP right owners, particularly those of innovative technologies, dispose of a disproportionate strong legal position in relation to that of competitors and customers, which is detrimental to society at large. Brown investigates how the power of the IP right owners can be limited by applying existing human rights law and competition law. To that aim it is suggested to widen the legal landscape and to develop a more tripartite substantive approach to IP law, human rights law and competition law. BrownÕs study offers a very welcome new contribution to the literature on the functioning of IP law, by stressing the joint role which competition law and human rights law can play in this respect.Õ Ð F. Willem Grosheide, Utrecht University and Attorney at law, Van Doorne Amsterdam, The Netherlands This detailed book explores the relationship between intellectual property, competition and human rights. It considers the extent to which they can and must be combined by decision makers, and how this approach can foster innovation in key areas for society Ð such as pharmaceutical drugs, communications software and technology to combat climate change. The author argues that these three legal fields are strongly interrelated and that they can be used to identify essential technologies. She demonstrates that in some cases, combining the fields can deliver new bases for wider access to be provided to technologies. The solutions developed are strongly based on existing laws, with a focus on the UK and the EU and the structures of existing forms of dispute resolution, including the European Court of Human Rights and the dispute settlement bodies of the World Trade Organisation. The final chapters also suggest opportunities for further engagement at international policy and activist level, new approaches to IP and its treaties, and wider adoption of the proposals. This timely book will appeal to academics and practitioners in IP, competition and human rights, as well as innovation-related industry groups and access to knowledge, health and environment activists.

A comprehensive overview of intellectual property law, this handbook will be a vital read for all invested in the field of IP law. Topics include the foundations of IP law; its emergence and development in various jurisdictions; its rules and principles; and current issues arising from the existence and operation of IP law in a political economy.

As technological developments multiply around the globeâ€"even as the patenting of human genes comes under serious discussionâ€"nations, companies, and researchers find themselves in conflict over intellectual property rights (IPRs). Now, an international group of experts presents the first multidisciplinary look at IPRs in an age of explosive growth in science and technology. This thought-provoking volume offers an update on current international IPR negotiations and includes case studies on software, computer chips, optoelectronics, and biotechnologyâ€"areas characterized by high development cost and easy reproducibility. The volume covers these and other issues: Modern economic theory as a basis for approaching international IPRs. U.S. intellectual property practices versus those in Japan, India, the European Community, and the developing and newly industrializing countries. Trends in science and technology and how they affect IPRs. Pros and cons of a uniform international IPRs regime versus a system reflecting national differences.

In The Global Regime for the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, Xavier Seuba offers a comprehensive description of the international norms and bodies dealing with the enforcement of intellectual property rights. The book analyzes multilateral, plurilateral, and bilateral treaties, and their national implementation, along with civil, border, and criminal enforcement. The book also explores the interface between the enforcement of intellectual property rights and the norms regulating international trade, competition, and human rights, as well as the conceptual and systemic aspects of enforcement, while illustrating the importance of these rights with examples in litigation. The book should be read by anyone interested in how intellectual property rights are being enforced around the world, and how these efforts relate to other legal regimes.