3D printing (or, more correctly, additive manufacturing) is the general term for those software-driven technologies that create physical objects by successive layering of materials. Due to recent advances in the quality of objects produced and to lower processing costs, the increasing dispersion and availability of these technologies have major implications not only for manufacturers and distributors but also for users and consumers, raising unprecedented challenges for intellectual property protection and enforcement. This is the first and only book to discuss 3D printing technology from a multidisciplinary perspective that encompasses law, economics, engineering, technology, and policy. Originating in a collaborative study spearheaded by the Hanken School of Economics, the Aalto University and the University of Helsinki in Finland and engaging an international consortium of legal, design and production engineering experts, with substantial contributions from industrial partners, the book fully exposes and examines the fundamental questions related to the nexus of intellectual property law, emerging technologies, 3D printing, business innovation, and policy issues. Twenty-five legal, technical, and business experts contribute sixteen peer-reviewed chapters, each focusing on a specific area, that collectively evaluate the tensions created by 3D printing technology in the context of the global economy. The topics covered include: • current and future business models for 3D printing applications; • intellectual property rights in 3D printing; • essential patents and technical standards in additive manufacturing; • patent and bioprinting; • private use and 3D printing; • copyright licences on the user-generated content (UGC) in 3D printing; • copyright implications of 3D scanning; and • non-traditional trademark infringement in the 3D printing context. Specific industrial applications – including aeronautics, automotive industries, construction equipment, toy and jewellery making, medical devices, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine – are all touched upon in the course of analyses. In a legal context, the central focus is on the technology’s implications for US and European intellectual property law, anchored in a comparison of relevant laws and cases in several legal systems. This work is a matchless resource for patent, copyright, and trademark attorneys and other corporate counsel, innovation economists, industrial designers and engineers, and academics and policymakers concerned with this complex topic.

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.

This book examines the effects of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), namely patents and copyrights, on innovation and technical change in information technologies. It provides new insights on the links between markets, technologies and legislation by applying a variety of empirical and analytical methods. The book also explores the success of the Open Source movement to establish an alternative regime for IPRs by illuminating the rationale behind it and illustrating how Open Source can strategically be used by firms.

This Handbook provides a scholarly and comprehensive account of the multiple converging challenges that digital technologies present for intellectual property (IP) rights, from the perspectives of international, EU and US law. Despite the fast-moving nature of digital technology, this Handbook provides profound reflections on the underlying normative legal dilemmas, identifying future problems and suggesting how digital IP issues should be dealt with in the future.

The first report in a new flagship series, WIPO Technology Trends, aims to shed light on the trends in innovation in artificial intelligence since the field first developed in the 1950s.

'A major contribution to the literature on the role of intellectual property rights (IPR) for the financing of innovation. The book is extensively researched and provides compelling insights for IPR managers, technology investors and policymakers trying to promote the efficiency of capital markets and national systems of innovation.' Knut Blind, Berlin University of Technology, Germany Following the transition of industrial nations to knowledge economies, the financing of technological innovation has become a central issue in public policy, corporate finance and business management. This detailed book examines the role of intellectual property rights in facilitating the financing of technological innovation as well as the role of policy makers, investors and managers in this process. The book's central finding is that public policy plays a key role in promoting the corporate disclosure of intellectual property-related information to enhance the efficiency of capital markets. This not only reduces the costs of capital for technology-driven firms but ultimately spurs innovation and economic growth. Intellectual Property Rights and the Financing of Technological Innovation will strongly appeal to research students and academics, policy makers, intellectual property professionals, equity analysts, credit rating analysts and executives in the pharmaceutical industry.

One of the alleged benefits of the recent global movement to strengthen intellectual property rights (IPRs) is that such reforms accelerate transfers of technology between countries. Branstetter, Fisman, and Foley examine how technology transfer among U.S. multinational firms changes in response to a series of IPR reforms undertaken by 12 countries over the 1982-99 period. Their analysis of detailed firm-level data reveal that royalty payments for intangibles transferred to affiliates increase at the time of reforms, as do affiliate research and development (R & D) expenditures and total levels of foreign patent applications. Increases in royalty payments and R & D expenditures are more than 20 percent larger among affiliates of parent companies that use U.S. patents more extensively prior to reform and therefore are expected to value IPR reform most. This paper--a product of Trade, Development Research Group--is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the global impact of stronger intellectual property rights.