Journal of World Intellectual Property最新文献

Against the background of the economic confrontation between Western countries and China, it is evident that the concept of economic intelligence is changing, manifesting itself in several planes simultaneously, and corporate confrontation moves to the level of protection of national interests. At the same time, the factors influencing the perception of corporate confrontation methods are subject to changes. The purpose of this study is to examine the current transformation of approaches to the understanding of ethical behavior in economic intelligence in the context of existing legal constraints. Based on the assumption that methods and tactics of economic intelligence are not static, the study aims to identify factors that influence their ethical perception. The study argues that the transformation of approaches to the understanding of ethical behavior and the very definition of ethical behavior in economic intelligence is directly related to the technological aspect, the transition of many business processes in the digital plane. In cyberspace, the psychological perception of wrongdoing changes significantly. Commitment to ethical behavior may naturally decrease due to the lack of personal contact between the agent of influence and the source.

For more than three decades, the system of intellectual property for plants in Aotearoa New Zealand has been the subject of controversy. Critics claim that the system fails to fulfil the promises of the nation's founding document, Te Tiriti o Waitangi|The Treaty of Waitangi (1840), which guarantees that Māori will retain tino rangatiratanga (absolute sovereignty) over their taonga (treasured and significant) plant species. The 2021 Plant Variety Rights Bill aims to address this concern while also complying with international obligations that New Zealand undertook when it joined the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (2018). Thus, the Bill endeavours to uphold the government's commitments under Te Tiriti and to give effect to the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention. These plural and sometimes divergent goals manifest a deeper tension that underlies how legal systems in Aotearoa New Zealand conceptualise human relationships with nonhuman beings and environments. While a Pākehā (Western/European) approach to intellectual property conceives of plants as alienable economic objects, tikanga Māori (customary protocols and values) understands that like humans, plants possess mauri (life force) and whakapapa (genealogy) that connect these beings with the environments they inhabit. This article explores how tensions between ontological, legal, and political systems imbue the Plant Variety Rights Bill. While the proposal represents a progressive reform, it may fall short of living up to its aspirations for authentic partnership between Māori and the Crown.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology offers promise in relation to much-needed health technologies associated with COVID-19. Additive manufacturing, which allows the rapid conversion of information from digital 3D models into physical objects, is uniquely well-positioned to address the shortage of critical medical devices by enabling the fabrication and repair of medical devices in a timely and cost-effective manner. This paper examines the issue of patent rights being at odds with access to critical 3D printable health technologies during COVID-19 crisis. It undertakes an in-depth analysis of the right to repair and calls for a clearer recognition of the right to repair exemption at the global level. It also evaluates the private and noncommercial use exception and proposes the use of a reasonably broad form of this exception to make it practically significant. It also considers the experimental use exception and calls upon World Trade Organization Member States to provide legislative clarity that a defense of an experimental use extends to repairs. This study is crucial because access to necessary health technologies, in a pandemic context, is a matter of life and death for millions of patients around the globe, especially for underprivileged patients in resource-constrained countries.

Continents are facing an apocalyptic pandemic that is terribly dangerous for millions of their inhabitants. This paper seeks to address the role of intellectual property (IP) law in addressing the problem of the COVID-19 pandemic. We suggest that the current international IP law regime and the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement are not insurmountable obstacles for access to a successful COVID-19 vaccine. The publicly advocated fundamental reform or even abolition of the present IP law regime under serious information asymmetries might be counterproductive and distortive. Via existing compulsory licensing, advance purchase agreements and the employment of patent-pools, research subsidies, reward mechanisms and reputational sanctions, governments can take the steps needed to effectively overcome any IP-associated barriers to access to crucial medicines/vaccines, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the current wave of medical research on COVID-19 suggests the previous vaccine R&D ‘failures’ were driven by the modest demand for such vaccines and were not due to an inadequate IP-incentive stream. The paper also suggests today's EU competition law rules on the horizontal exchange of information could be seen as an impediment to innovation and thus be temporary suspended.

There are various ways by which a company can raise funds. The easiest is through debt financing, that is creating debt securities. When a debt is created, a security equivalent to the debt amount is given by the debtor as “collateral.” The “collateral” can either be a tangible or intangible asset. Tangible assets are those which could be perceived by senses while intangibles include intellectual property rights of a company. Usually, the documents of IP rights are used to create security interest. The created IP sometimes will be again used to create a pledge, in that case, the question as to who will have the authority of the property is still not clarified in Indian laws. The paper tries to cover international principles that could be applied such rule of perfection to cater to the development of a solution.

This paper provides the systematic literature review of the literature on patent law failure. Specifically, we focus on both theoretical and empirical studies on patent law, its framework and evolution of its failure. We also explain the influence of TRIPS agreement on developing countries. Additionally, this paper also provides a broader overview of patent law in various settings. Further, to provide a broader framework and future aspects of the patent law in developing countries we tried to mostly mention and interpret the data in relation to the development of those countries. The article also covers different reasons of patent law failure.

This article addresses the role of traditional medicine in the corona virus (COVID-19) battle. It situates traditional medicine within the traditional knowledge and Intellectual Property discussion. The paper discusses the increased gravitation towards using traditional medicine but also identifies the existence of scepticism towards its use. Indigenous communities make up a large portion of the traditional medicine community and are therefore called upon to play their role in the fight against COVID-19. The battle is real, the coronavirus ground is an intersecting one with multiple, plausible solutions. Traditional medicine has a role in this battle and this article advocates for collaboration. It is a clarion call for all stakeholders to join hands to fight the virus. It advocates inclusion rather than exclusion.

This paper explores the dynamic long-term relationship between software protection and software piracy rates across 108 countries over the period of 20 years (1994–2015), with the help of the ARDL model. The analysis employs a new way of utilising the membership duration of Trade related Intellectual Property Rights agreement and World Intellectual Property Organisation Copyright Treaty agreements of different countries in a panel framework, apart from constructing an index of copyright software protection by focusing on enforcement provisions. The paper overcomes various shortcomings of earlier literatures by thoughtful inclusion of independent variables and methodological techniques. Results show that both copyright software protection and income share a negative long-term relationship with software piracy. Even the enforcement provisions are important in mitigating software piracy. In addition, the model finds a negative relationship between demand for intellectual property protection and software piracy rates.

This article analyses intellectual property (IP) disputes in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) through the lenses of Third World approaches to international law (TWAIL) and how a reformist TWAIL approach might be used to address the concerns related to IP-ISDS disputes. It has three objectives. First, to discuss TWAIL and its readings of IP. Using the TWAIL framework, the article illustrates TWAILers’ positions on the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) are an ideologist project that aims to transplant IP norms to developing countries and the role of actors, particularly industrialist lobbying in the making of international IP norms. Despite such views, the compromise that was made in the form of TRIPS’ flexibilities being threatened by ISDS mechanisms. Thus, the second objective of this article is to demonstrate the implications that recent IP-related ISDS disputes could potentially undermine the balance achieved through TRIPS. The last objective is to demonstrate how the Global South is regaining its sovereign regulatory control through a reformist approach.

With the appearance and the growing attention obtained by Bitcoin worldwide, the demand for cryptocurrencies based on blockchain technology is being driven forward at a great speed. Therefore, given the rapid valuation and strong price volatility of Bitcoin in combination with the huge potential for expansion that cryptocurrencies are expected to hold, the ability to develop technologies to help users and financial institutions carrying out transactions based on Bitcoins is also highly sought. To improve understanding of the technological trends associated with the recent valuation explosion of Bitcoin, this study assesses patent filing patterns associated with Bitcoin-based technologies. More specifically, this study provides robust empirical evidence pointing out that the recent increased visibility of Bitcoin also motivated a strong increase in patent filings addressing technologies related to Bitcoin, thereby turning this particular cryptocurrency into a technological hotspot. Additionally, we present evidence that most Bitcoin technologies address data processing issues, rather than electric signal processing, or hardware technologies. Another relevant finding concerns the geographical concentration of patent applications, as the majority of applicants are based in highly heterogeneous countries, such as United States, China, and South Korea.