Property Law and the Intellectual Property Agenda

Abstract

What can intellectual property (IP) learn from the questions raised by property doctrine? A lot of scholarship addresses the degree to which the two bodies of law cohere in principle, justification, or practice. This chapter surveys some of this well-marked terrain, while suggesting some less detailed areas of the map that might merit more exploration than they have received to date. The most familiar set of questions arise from the contention that IP is or should be considered a form of property, but property law is also a source of doctrines and approaches for limiting the scope of intellectual property rights. Though less emphasized, a concern with information also links the two fields, as many property doctrines may also be considered a form of information management. Finally, conceiving of property doctrine as a system offers another possibility for informing IP scholarship.