Overlapping Intellectual Property Rights 2nd ed (eBook)

Intellectual property rights are not the result of any legislative or judicial master plan. Rather, they have emerged from a confluence of factors, reaching back to the first appearances of judicial and statutory protection of intellectual property rights in the 18th century, and continuing apace. However, while intellectual property rights are separate and distinct, they will often overlap in providing legal protection for a common subject matter.

Given technological and commercial developments, the nature and scope of these overlaps is greater and more expansive than ever. As such, the need has never been keener to provide a foundation for a better understanding of the role of overlaps with respect to intellectual property law and practice. This book illuminates the diversity of these overlaps, presenting separate chapters on 21 pairs, adopting an understanding of what constitutes such rights, and including related administrative legal arrangements. The result taken together presents a unique comprehensive approach to the subject.

While the legal focus of these overlaps is US, UK, and European law, the book also contains comparison tables of the position of overlapping intellectual property rights in 17 countries around the world. These comparison tables complement the content chapters and provide the reader with an additional way to approach the subject by providing granular attention to how these overlaps play out in law and practice in countries with differing legal systems.