{"title":"Linking and Copyright in the Shade of VG Bild-Kunst","authors":"Eleonora Rosati","doi":"10.54648/cola2021115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.54648/cola2021115","url":null,"abstract":"In VG Bild-Kunst, the Grand Chamber of the ECJ has expressly held, for the first time, that linking to a copyright work lawfully published on a third-party website may be restricted through contract and not solely through technical restrictions on access (for instance, a paywall). To this end, however, the concerned rightholder is required to adopt or mandate the adoption of effective technological measures. Lacking these, an unauthorised act of linking shall not be infringing. The judgment has important implications for the construction of the right of communication to the public in the InfoSoc Directive 2001/29 and its application to online scenarios, as well as for the interpretation of provisions in other EU copyright directives, including the DSM Directive 2019/790. It also raises questions regarding the compatibility of the Court’s reasoning with key tenets of copyright law, such as the no formalities rule in the Berne Convention, and the prohibition of exhaustion of this economic right.","PeriodicalId":177397,"journal":{"name":"ERPN: Intellectual Property (Topic)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129852462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trips Agreement – World Trade Organization","authors":"Shahbaz Akhtar","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3905761","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3905761","url":null,"abstract":"“Trademarks are signs that identify goods or services offered on a market. Trademarks are nothing new. For example, Ancient Greeks and Romans stamped or inscribed on various groups an identifying symbol or name. Today the trademark is a way to attract the public. Consumers look at trademarks to choose goods and services which increases the role of trademarks in global marketing. The economic value of trademarks in attracting consumers requires that firms manage and protect them comparably to other assets. The industrial property system offers are legal means for such protection. The purpose of this research paper is to explain the trips agreements in detail and to analyze the criticism made on it.”","PeriodicalId":177397,"journal":{"name":"ERPN: Intellectual Property (Topic)","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132021346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What do Firms Gain from Patenting? The Case of the Global ICT Industry.","authors":"Dimitrios Exadaktylos, Mahdi Ghodsi, Armando Rungi","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3897611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3897611","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the relationship between patenting activity, productivity, and market competition at the firm level. We focus on the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry as a particular case of an innovative sector whose contribution to modern economies is pivotal. For our purpose, we exploit financial accounts and patenting activity in 2009-2017 by 179,660 companies operating in 39 countries. Our identification strategy relies on the most recent approaches for a difference-in-difference setup in the presence of multiple periods and with variation in treatment time. We find that companies being granted patents increase on average market shares by 11%, firm size by 12%, and capital intensity by 10%. Notably, we do not register a significant impact of patenting on firms' productivity after challenging results for reverse causality and robustness checks. Findings are robust after we consider ownership structures separating patents owned by parent companies and their subsidiaries. We complement our investigation with an analysis of market allocation dynamics. Eventually, we argue that policymakers should reconsider the trade-off between IPR protection and market competition, especially when the benefits to firms' competitiveness are not immediately evident.","PeriodicalId":177397,"journal":{"name":"ERPN: Intellectual Property (Topic)","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126561366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Intellectual Property Rights, Technology Transfer and International Trade","authors":"Ana Maria Santacreu","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3885234","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3885234","url":null,"abstract":"I study the short- and long-term effects of regional trade agreements (RTA) with strict intellectual property (IP) provisions. An empirical analysis using gravity methods suggests that regions signing these agreements share more technology in the form of technology licensing following the year of enforcement. I set up a multi-country model with endogenous productivity through innovation and adoption to quantify the effect of such agreements on innovation, growth and welfare. Adopters pay royalties to innovators for the use of their technology; the model allows for various degrees of IP rights enforcement ranging from pure imitation to perfect enforcement of IP rights. An improvement of IP protection in exchange for market access increases welfare, growth and innovation in the world. Developed countries benefit from a higher return to innovation and a lower home trade share, accruing welfare gains both in the short and long term. Developing countries are impacted through three channels: (i) internal IP reforms increase the return to domestic innovators,(ii) lower trade costs increase profits from exports, and (ii) higher royalty payments reduce the return to adopters. A counterfactual exercise shows that while the first two forces dominate in the long run, there are short-term losses from a lower return to adoption.","PeriodicalId":177397,"journal":{"name":"ERPN: Intellectual Property (Topic)","volume":"242 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134506800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Analysis of the Trademark Infringement Lawsuit Between TheClubhouse and Clubhouse","authors":"Osiri Ndukwe","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3852168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3852168","url":null,"abstract":"The objective of this paper is to examine the merit in the trademark infringement lawsuit instituted by SBS Consulting Group against Alpha Exploration Co., regarding the use of “Clubhouse”. The paper also seeks to explain the dichotomy between federal trademark registration and unregistered common law trademark, on one hand, the USPTO data search results for “Clubhouse”, on the other hand. The paper will be concluded with the writer’s opinion as to the likely outcome of the lawsuit.","PeriodicalId":177397,"journal":{"name":"ERPN: Intellectual Property (Topic)","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127660546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do Patents Alleged to be “Overly-broad” and of “Dubious Validity” Retard Innovation?","authors":"J. Howells, R. D. Katznelson","doi":"10.5465/ambpp.2021.11156abstract","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2021.11156abstract","url":null,"abstract":"A current refrain in patent policy discourse is that “overly-broad” patents of “dubious validity” retard innovation. We briefly review expressions of the thesis to show that they reduce to the alle...","PeriodicalId":177397,"journal":{"name":"ERPN: Intellectual Property (Topic)","volume":"352 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115976390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Innovation Consequences of Mandatory Patent Disclosures","authors":"Jinhwan Kim, Kristen Valentine","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3469400","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3469400","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We investigate the effect of patent disclosures on corporate innovation. Using the American Inventor’s Protection Act (AIPA) as a shock that increased patent disclosures, we find an increase in innovation for firms whose rivals reveal more information after the AIPA and a decrease in innovation for firms whose own disclosures are divulged to competitors as a result of the law. These findings suggest patent disclosures generate both spillover benefits and proprietary costs. Our findings provide justification for patent disclosure requirements by demonstrating positive externalities: rivals’ disclosures facilitate a firm’s innovation. However, we also highlight that mandatory patent disclosures can impose proprietary costs on firms. These results broadly contribute to our understanding of the real effects of disclosure, such that forcing firms to share proprietary information can be privately costly but beneficial to other firms.","PeriodicalId":177397,"journal":{"name":"ERPN: Intellectual Property (Topic)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128441935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"'Fair Use' through Fundamental Rights: When Freedom of Artistic Expression allows Creative Appropriations and Opens up Statutory Copyright Limitations","authors":"C. Geiger","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3725013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3725013","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the evolution in jurisprudential understanding of the relationship between copyright and freedom of artistic expression in the European Union. It demonstrates how courts in France and several other EU member states have accepted a “fair use” approach that applies fundamental rights as external limitations to copyright law, in compliance with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights but contrasting with the recent conflicting position of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The chapter first analyses the application of freedom of artistic expression to copyright law on a case-by-case basis and shows that, although long contested, such an approach is now mandated by EU primary law, thus “flexibilizing” significantly the legal framework in this area. It then examines the balancing act between fundamental rights and copyright, with particular attention paid to the weight the judiciary should afford freedom of artistic expression versus copyright law in cases of creative appropriation, in order to comply with the obligations resulting from European, national, and international human rights provisions. Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion and evaluation of the growing need for legislative reform to render freedom of artistic expression fully compatible with copyright law in the context of creative reuses of protected works.","PeriodicalId":177397,"journal":{"name":"ERPN: Intellectual Property (Topic)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128729258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Academic Copyright in the Age of Commodification of Scientific Research","authors":"Roberto Caso","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3722125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3722125","url":null,"abstract":"There is a large stream of literature related to academic copyright. Nonetheless, a comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of the interplay between economic rights and moral right of paternity appears to be missing. Furthermore, the impact of commodification of research on academic copyright has not been sufficiently investigated. The basic thesis of this article is that academic copyright with reference to academic texts is currently going through a distortion that alters its nature and functions. This distortion is one of the effects of commodification of scientific research. This paper dwells on these aspects with a focus on the role of modern science and the context in which research is performed and highlights the perverse effects of the current evaluation system based on metrics and numbers and the scientific publishing system dominated by an oligopoly of information and analytics providers. Open Science can represent a tool to defend independence of science and academic freedom, though strong actions are required to change the current situation.","PeriodicalId":177397,"journal":{"name":"ERPN: Intellectual Property (Topic)","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125830228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Remedy of Passing off in Copyright","authors":"Sankalp Jain","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3902648","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3902648","url":null,"abstract":"An action in passing off provides a very good remedy and supplement to copyrights law, where there is no infringement of rights. Its wider scope can be imported in restraining unfair practices or unfair appropriation of business goodwill. The remedies available under this action include, injunction, account for profits, damages, declaration etc. In addition to statutory protection, all the above items are potentially protected under the \"passing off\" area of the common law (which has been shown by recent judicial decisions to be a strong form of protection in cases where reputation has been clearly established).","PeriodicalId":177397,"journal":{"name":"ERPN: Intellectual Property (Topic)","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115394232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}