scholarly journals Non-Linear Innovation

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 563-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Shur-Ofry
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Multidisciplinary Research ◽  
Property Theory ◽  
Science And Art ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Cultural Preference ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cumulative Innovation ◽  
Property Regime

Contemporary intellectual property theory concentrates on the cumulative and incremental nature of innovation and creation. A prevalent image depicts authors and inventors as “standing on the shoulders of giants.” This article focuses on a different type of innovation that has been largely overlooked by intellectual property theory and doctrine: innovation in the domains of science and art that breaks with convention, disputes existing paradigms, and “steps off” giants’ shoulders. I term it “non-linear innovation”. Drawing on multidisciplinary research ranging from the history of science, through network analysis of radical inventions, to studies of creativity, this article illuminates an embedded socio-cultural preference for incremental and linear novelty over paradigm-changing innovation. It then inquires whether intellectual property doctrine reflects this bias and whether the intellectual property regime can better foster non-linear innovation. The examination yields a series of counterintuitive recommendations concerning numerous patent and copyright law doctrines. More broadly, the analysis indicates that neither the “shoulders of giants” metaphor nor the opposite image of the “lone genius” adequately capture the dynamics of non-linear innovation. It further suggests that expanding intellectual property’s narrative of progress to accommodate non-linear innovation, alongside cumulative innovation, could significantly contribute to the ecosystem of innovation and creation.

Considerations for translation rights 2.0

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 81-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaafar Sadek
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Interactive Technologies ◽  
Translation Rights ◽  
History Of ◽  
Property Regime

As the contours of the globalized digital information society become apparent, so does the need for a reform of translation rights within the intellectual property regime. The history of translation rights provides insights that help us understand the underlying economic and political tensions in copyright negotiations today. The various versions of agency in translation studies, which run parallel to recent interactive technologies, destabilize important notions in copyright law, such as authorship, originality, and the idea-expression dichotomy. Finally, translational ethics can perhaps contribute to redirect current dialogues on copyright and language policy towards increased interdisciplinarity and internationalism, in part, as a result of decentralizing power.

Negotiating Copyright in the American Theatre: 1856–1951

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent S. Salter
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Business History ◽  
American Theatre ◽  
The Past ◽  
Professional Norms ◽  
History Of

Drawing on fascinating archival discoveries from the past two centuries, Brent Salter shows how copyright has been negotiated in the American theatre. Who controls the space between authors and audiences? Does copyright law actually protect playwrights and help them make a living? At the center of these negotiations are mediating businesses with extraordinary power that rapidly evolved from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries: agents, publishers, producers, labor associations, administrators, accountants, lawyers, government bureaucrats, and film studio executives. As these mediators asserted authority over creativity, creators organized to respond, through collective minimum contracts, informal guild expectations, and professional norms, to protect their presumed rights as authors. This institutional, relational, legal, and business history of the entertainment history in America illuminates both the historical context and the present law. An innovative new kind of intellectual property history, the book maps the relations between the different players from the ground up.

scholarly journals 'Weisheit, Wahrheit und Witz'

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (126) ◽  
pp. 126-148
Author(s):  
Jeanette Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Divine Wisdom ◽  
Late 18Th Century ◽  
History Of

This paper looks at the history of the individualization of knowledge. Intellectual property is based on the assumption that individuals are originators of insights and ideas. The notion of the author as creator is a recent invention. Until late 18th century, literati were regarded as craftsmen or mediators, who merely write down the divine wisdom by following the rules of rhetoric. The author as defined in modern copyright law thus gets a lot of credit for intellectual achievements that once were believed to be public domain.

The Ethics of Piracy

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
International Development ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Ethical Debate ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
History Of ◽  
Normative Models ◽  
Property Regime

Chapter 2 broadens out from the history of a local industry to the legal and political processes through which the globalization of intellectual property law has taken place, especially the consolidation of the intellectual property regime via the TRIPS Agreement administered by the World Trade Organization. The chapter then gets down to the everyday work routines of Maya apparel workshop owners and employees making knock-off fashion. Copying, borrowing, and appropriation are part and parcel of the elaboration of style in the highland trade. These practices are also the subject of ongoing ethical debate in Tecpán. The chapter argues that copying is evaluated by workshop owners in light of norms and values that differ significantly from those promoted in intellectual property law. The normative models, which revolve around ideas about envy, individualism, and fair and unfair competition, and market strategies evident among Maya businessmen parochialize official portraits of business ethics and innovation built into the intellectual property regime and challenge assumptions about progress, improvement, and ordering on which the international development industry is also based.

Recent Copyright Protection Schemes

2011 ◽  
pp. 182-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman T. Tavani
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Copyright Protection ◽  
The United States ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Property Theory ◽  
Copyright Policy ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The Way

This chapter critically examines current copyright protection schemes that apply to digital information. We begin with a brief examination of the way in which copyright law has evolved in the United States, from its Anglo-American origins to the present, and then we examine three traditional philosophical theories of property that have been used to justify the granting of copyright protection. Arguing that each property theory is inadequate, we next consider and reject the view that intellectual property should not be protected at all (and thus should be completely free). We then critically analyze the notion of information, arguing that it should not be viewed as a commodity that deserves exclusive protection but rather as something that should be communicated and shared. Building on this view, we argue for a new presumptive principle for approaching the copyright debate — namely, the principle that information wants to be shared. Finally, we argue that presuming in favor of this principle would enable us to formulate a copyright policy that can avoid the extremes found in the two main competing contemporary positions, both of which are morally unacceptable: (1) the view that access to all digitized information should be totally free; and (2) the view that overreaching, and arguably oppressive, copyright legislation, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Copyright Term Extension Act, is needed to protect digital information.

The Emergence and Development of United States Intellectual Property Law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oren Bracha
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
The United States ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Trademark Law ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Further Development

This chapter surveys the history of intellectual property law in the United States from its colonial origins to the present, and focuses on the three subfields that have a claim for seniority in terms of their longevity and importance: patent, copyright, and trademark. The development of these subfields is described as a process in which law has interacted with technology, economic factors, ideology, and politics. The chapter describes how at the end of the eighteenth-century American patent and copyright law emerged out of two sources: British laws and institutions and local colonial practices. The further development of American intellectual property law is analysed as comprising three stages: early patent, copyright, and trademark law; the consolidation of the modern framework of these fields through significant transformations beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century; and the various developments from the early twentieth century to the present.

General Principles for Integration

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
World Trade Organisation ◽  
Resolution Function ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
History Of ◽  
Prior Analysis

This chapter reviews the broader principles in the international intellectual property (IP) system that fulfil an indirect integration or conflict resolution function, with a focus on those emanating from and applicable to the Trade Related Aspects of International Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. In focusing on Articles 7 and 8 of TRIPS, the chapter builds on prior analysis about the role of these provisions in establishing an agreed, common object and purpose of the principal global IP treaty with relevance beyond TRIPS. In light of the origins and negotiation history of Articles 7 and 8 TRIPS, the chapter shows how these provisions can be applied to integrate ‘external’ objectives and interests via interpretation and implementation. Next, this chapter reviews their very poor record of application in the first twenty years of World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute settlement. It concludes with suggestions for an appropriate recognition of external norms, objectives, and interests via Articles 7 and 8.

Fixing Improvisation

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthea Kraut
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African American ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Tap Dance ◽  
American Vernacular ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter juxtaposes brief case studies of African American vernacular dancers from the first half of the twentieth century in order to reexamine the relationship between the ideology of intellectual property law and the traditions of jazz and tap dance, which rely heavily on improvisation. The examples of the blackface performer Johnny Hudgins, who claimed a copyright in his pantomime routine in the 1920s, and of Fred and Sledge, the class-act dance duo featured in the hit 1948 musical Kiss Me, Kate, whose choreography was copyrighted by the white modern dancer Hanya Holm, prompt a rethinking of the assumed opposition between the originality and fixity requirements of copyright law and the improvisatory ethos of jazz and tap dance. Ultimately, the chapter argues that whether claiming or disavowing uniqueness, embracing or resisting documentation, African American vernacular dancers were both advantaged and hampered by copyright law.

scholarly journals In the service of secrecy: An enveloped history of priority, proof and patents

2021 ◽  
pp. 135918352110288
Author(s):  
Eva Hemmungs Wirtén
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Property System ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Propriété Industrielle ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Double Envelope ◽  
Double Compartment

This article is about an everyday paper object: an envelope. However, as opposed to most other flat paper containers, the enveloppe Soleau can only be bought from L’Institut national de la propriété industrielle (INPI) in Paris. At the cost of €15 you get a perforated, double-compartment envelope allowing you to constitute proof of creation and assign a precise date to your idea or project. But the enveloppe Soleau is something much more than just a simple and cheap way by which you can prove priority in any creative domain. It is a material footprint anchored to centuries of practices associated with disclosure and secrecy, a gateway into the infrastructure of the intellectual property system and its complicated relationship to the forms of knowledge it purports to hold. The purpose of this article is to consider the making of the enveloppe Soleau as a bureaucratic document, a material device performing a particular kind of legal paperwork. In four different vignettes, the article tracks the material becoming of the enveloppe Soleau as an evidentiary receptacle, beginning by going back to early modern practices of secrecy and priority, continuing with its consolidation in two patents (from 1910 and 1911) to the inventor Eugène Soleau (1852–1929), and ending up, in 2016, dematerialized in the e-Soleau. As a bureaucratic document, the enveloppe Soleau shows just how much work a mundane paper object can perform, navigating a particular materiality (a patented double envelope); formalized processes of proof (where perforations have legal significance); the practices of double archiving (in an institution and with the individual) and strict temporal limitations (a decade). Ultimately, the enveloppe Soleau travels between the material and immaterial, between private and public, between secrecy and disclosure, but also between what we perceive of as the outside and inside of the intellectual property system.

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