sutton044

“ There is nothing new under the sun ”. In copyright law, this declaration from the Book of Ecclesiastes  t ranslates into an awkward tension between the need to limit slavish copying (to prevent free-riding), on the one hand, and the need to allow a degree of derivative creation, on the other (to avoid stifling creativity). But where do we draw the line? This is the fraught question that Omri Rachum-Twaig addresses in his recent book, “Copyright law and derivative works ”. The author revisits the right to make derivative works through the lenses of cognitive psychology and genre theory, both of which study creativity. The author argues that copyright law has much to learn from these two disciplines, both in the way that they understand creativity and how to best encourage it. "Why these two fields", you ask? Perhaps, according to the author, it is because each of them investigates a different aspect of creativity: cognitive psychology focuses on creativity as a process, whi...

Copyright is not the simplest of intellectual property rights and when you add licensing to the mix the combination of contract and competition law plus cross border questions can provide complex considerations for even the most experienced practitioner. Cross-Border Copyright Licensing: Law and Practice , edited by Carlo Scollo Lavizzari and Rene Viljoen aims to guide you through some of these complexities, particularly as they relate to China, the EU, India, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, South Africa and the US. The book gives a handy and comprehensive overview of the legal issues to consider when licensing copyright in each territory. This includes the approach of the national courts to important questions such as jurisdiction and choice of law. More practical considerations such as collecting societies are considered as well as related rights such as image rights, moral rights and performers rights. In some cases, other rights such as patents get a special mention, particularly where ...

Copyright has nothing to do with art. Those who believe otherwise are romantic dreamers who overcomplicate this field of law. No doubt you will have heard or read this before. Perhaps you might even share this view. If so, Daniel McClean ’s latest edited collection, ' A rtist, Authorship & Legacy: A Reader’ , may be just what you need to nuance your point of view.  The ambiguity of copyright’s relationship with art, or art with copyright, is precisely what this book is about. McClean brings together twenty-two essays by different authors, who collectively examine both the overlaps and gaps between legal and artistic authorship, this against the backdrop of the day-to-day practice of commissioning, buying, exhibiting and curating artworks. The collection executes this task brilliantly by framing each chapter in relation to a particular event or dispute which took place in the open (in courts, museums or the press) or behind the semi-closed doors of the art world via ‘open secr...

Kerly's Law of Trade Marks and Trade Names is considered the leading text on trade marks and trade names, having provided expert guidance on all aspects of UK trade mark law since 1894. The latest edition certainly continues the tradition, offering the reader a holistic and thoroughly-detailed analysis of trade mark law, including major updates in line with EU reforms and the latest case law developments. In particular, the 16th edition includes three new chapters. The first new chapter covers the average consumer – identifying the relevant characteristics and factors that influence the level of attention, and discussion of where it is (and is not) deployed. The second is “a best-guess about Brexit chapter” which considers the impact of Brexit on registered trade marks which have force in the UK and the effect on owners of EU registered trade marks used primarily in the UK. The third new chapter addresses the meaning of the expression “trade mark,” outlining its essential functions...

Are you under the romantic spell of copyright law, so much so that its mutation into an aggressive economic tool protective of investments rather than creative labour has escaped your attention? Or, much like Fiona Macmillan in Kritika, have you been staring at the “ugly underbelly” of this mutant-copyright for quite some time now?    Copyright is one of the many IP rights which, according to some has got out of hand (due to over-expansion across various dimensions) or is increasingly out of touch with reality (due to obsolescence). With the third volume of Kritica – Essays on Intellectual Property law , editors Haans Ullrich, Peter Drahos and Gustavo Ghidini, delivers an academic review of the IP system’s inadequacy. A tall order indeed. Taken together, the overarching conclusion reached by the contributors is that fixing copyright, or any other IP right, would require re-tuning the core concepts of both national and international IP laws. Each chapter of the collection engag...

Two decades ago, the world of academic publishing was taken by a storm called ‘open access’. The movement of ‘open access’ advocates for making published content available to the public for free. No fees and no (or little) right-based restrictions to limit access (apparently, the wisdom that authors need financial incentives to create does not apply to scholars who write for pleasure or reputation alone). The aim of open access is [was] to democratize access to knowledge.   In ‘The Economics Open Access’ , Thomas Eger and Marc Scheufen investigate whether ‘open access’ strategies have delivered on their promises. Combined with the rise of the Internet and digital technologies, open access strategies should have made the dissemination of knowledge (via academic publications) cheaper than ever. Instead, we find libraries facing higher subscription fees which forces them to cut back on their catalogue listing and monograph in-take…so what went wrong? The book offers an economic empir...

This Kat is pleased to put her paws on Anti-Counterfeiting: Practice and Procedure , written by Ralph Wehrle, a solicitor with over 25 years of experience in the area.  The book provides an overview of the criminal and civil law applicable in England and Wales, as well as other actions that may be taken to prevent counterfeiting. The book is divided into seven parts. In Part I, some highlights of the trade in infringing products are provided. First, the distinction between counterfeit and pirated goods is established, recognizing that the term counterfeit “is often used colloquially to refer to any product that imitates a genuine one but has been produced and/or distributed without the appropriate authority of a rights holder”. For the author, however, “counterfeit" refers to a product infringing a trademark, while "pirated" refers to a product infringing copyright.  Various trends in relation to the industries worst affected by counterfeiting (e.g. fashion and pharmace...

by Graham & Brown The end of each summer brings its traditional review of teaching curricula and reading lists before the start of a new academic semester. With ‘Copyright – What Everyone Needs to Know’ , US scholar Neil Weinstock Netanel , Professor of Law at UCLA, offers a new title to add to your library.  In this relatively short book, Weinstock Netanel describes the workings of US copyright law in accessible language. The author achieves an excellent balance between coverage and simplicity in the description of the law. Any copyright expert will agree that this is no small feat! It should be stressed that this book is not aimed at a legal or academic readership, as clearly indicated by its title. Rather, the book ‘speaks’ to a wider audience with no, or little, legal background and no specific knowledge in copyright. Whilst much of what is described in the book will also hold true for many other countries, the book centres on US copyright law. Having said that, references ...

This Kat is particularly interested in the laws that relate to social media, since it now features in her teaching schedule and research agenda ( see here ), she has come to see that it is of growing importance to rights-holders, businesses, and therefore IP and IT lawyers alike. S o she was delighted to review this title: The Legal Challenges of Social Media . As the forward by Sir Edward Garnier QC suggests, whilst many of the relevant laws might remain generally the same, the challenges of social media are in the application of those laws to developing technology, social networking sites, and changing user behaviours.  This book is edited by David Mangan, City, University of London and Lorna E. Gillies, University of Strathclyde and presented in 4 Parts within which are 13 chapters. The contributors include multi-disciplinary experts discussing the legal implications of social media from both public and private law perspectives.   In the Introduction, Mangan and Gillies hig...