DEATH OF PATENTS

Peter Drahos: has edited a provocative package of essays

Death of Patents is a new collection of essays in the Perspectives on Intellectual Property Law and Policy series, published by Lawtext Publishing Ltd for the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute. Edited by Australian scholar and former QM Herchel Smith Senior Research Fellow Peter Drahos, this collection of essays is quite provocative and demands of its readers that they keep an open mind while reading some material that they may find profoundly detrimental to their preconceived notions. On sale at £35, the book's contents are as follows:
Chapter 1 - Death of a Patent System - Introduction
Peter Drahos, Australian National University, Canberra

Chapter 2 - Schrodinger's Cat: An Observation on Modern Patent Law
Dr Margaret Llewelyn, Reader in Intellectual Property Law, and Deputy Director, Sheffield Institute for Biotechnology Law and Ethics (SIBLE), University of Sheffield

Chapter 3 - A Neuropsychological Analysis of the Law of Obviousness
Lachlan S. James, Innovation Capital, Sydney Australia

Chapter 4 - On Proprietary Rights and Personal Liberties: Constitutional Responses to Post-Industrial Patenting
John R Thomas, Associate Professor of Law, George Washington University

Chapter 5 - Shifts in India's Policy on Intellectual Property: The Role of Ideas, Coercion and Changing Interests
Anitha Ramanna, Lecturer at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Pune, India

Chapter 6 - The Ethics of Patenting - Uneasy Justifications
Sigrid Sterckx, Senior Lecturer Research Fellow, Ghent University and Part time Professor, University of Antwerp

Chapter 7 - Legal and Ethical Aspects of Bio-Patenting: Critical Analysis of EU Biotechnology Directive
Geertui Van Overwalle, Dr. Iur; Professor of Law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and at the Universite de Liege

Chapter 8 - Is the World Ready for Substantive Patent Law Harmonisation? A lesson from History
Graham Dutfield, Herchel Smith Senior Research Fellow at Queen Mary Intellectual Property Institute

The IPKat says you can really enjoy this little book. It shows how dangerously blinkered (though not necessarily wrong) a traditional patent lawyer's view of the patent system can be. Merpel adds, "I don't understand. If patent systems are dying, how come everyone seems to be making so much use of them and they're more popular than ever?". "In that case", says the IPKat, "do any of our readers fancy getting involved in a new collection of essays called Life of Patents? If so, let him know.

Hits on Slashdot for "death of patents" here

DEATH OF PATENTS DEATH OF PATENTS Reviewed by Jeremy on Friday, April 08, 2005 Rating: 5

6 comments:

  1. Superb. How very timely since that is exactly what is at issue. With
    the information age the conditions of society have changed so that what
    worked in the mechanical age is not longer appropriate. Patent is
    damaging to software innovation.

    This is so because it is the essence of a technology and not technology
    as such. It is a form of knowledge. Alan Cox calls it a speech form.
    Manuel Castells calls it the language of the information age. It is
    the world medium for the foreseeable future.

    Suppose Isaac Newton copyrighted the law of gravity. Would he get a
    patent on it because of the greater technical effect?

    In software the difference between technology and the idea behind it
    has been abolished. It does not exist therefore to patent it would be to
    patent knowledge as such. The cultural concession is completely
    unacceptable.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Patent systems are spreading throughout the world because they are being pushed by the US through WIPO and bilateral agreements.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Can't locate that book at http://www.amazon.co.uk. Where can I buy a copy?

    ReplyDelete
  4. You can buy it from the publisher, Lawtext. This link http://www.lawtext.com/lawtextweb/default.jsp?PageID=12&PublicationID=11&order=1
    should lead you through to an order form that is configured to enable you to purchase one copy of Death of Patents.

    ReplyDelete
  5. In actuality, these are the intellectual property law rights that implement on confidential information most of the time. This information can further be sold or licensed. Therefore, if you want to qualify as a trade secret, there are few things to which your information must comply.

    ReplyDelete

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