In the Information Age, historically marginalized groups and developing nations continue to strive for socio-economic empowerment within the global community. Their ultimate success largely depends upon their ability to develop, protect, and exploit th

Professors Flanagan and Montagnani have assembled a volume of essays recognizing that in a global information age, intellectual property is not merely a business asset, but a social phenomenon. The contributors marry consideration of fairness with exploration of efficiency, examination of economics with analysis of equity, drawing upon expertise and examples from both European and American law. The resulting collection will be an invaluable resource on both sides of the Atlantic, and around the globe. Dan L. Burk, University of California, Irvine, School of Law, US Intellectual Property Law examines emerging intellectual property (IP) issues through the bifocal lens of both economic analysis and individual or social justice theories. This study considers restraints on IP rights both internal and external to IP law and explores rights disequilibria from the perspective of both the rationale of IP law and the interface with competition law. The expert contributors discuss the phenomenon in various contexts of patent, trade secret; and copyright, each a tool to incentivize the growth of knowledge beyond innovation and creativity. This timely book will strongly appeal to academics, scholars, and postgraduate and PhD students interested in where and how the balance to intellectual property law is, should or could be set. Policymakers will also find this insightful resource invaluable.

Protection for intellectual property has never been absolute; it has always been limited in the public interest. The benefits of intellectual property protection are meant to flow to everyone, not just a limited population of creators and the corporations that represent them. Given this social-utility function, intellectual property regimes must address issues of access, inclusion, and empowerment for marginalized and excluded groups. This handbook defines an approach to considering social justice in intellectual property law and regulation. Top scholars in the field offer surveys of social justice implementation in patents, copyright, trademarks, trade secrets, rights of publicity, and other major IP areas. Chapters define Intellectual Property Social Justice theory and include recommendations for reforming aspects of IP law and administration to further social justice by providing better access, more inclusion, and greater empowerment to marginalized groups.

"The relevance of intellectual property (IP) law has increased dramatically over the last several years. Globalization, digitization, and the rise of post-industrial information-based industries have all contributed to a new prominence of IP law as one of the most important factors in driving innovation and economic development. At the same time, the significant expansion of IP rules has impacted many areas of public policy such as public health, the environment, biodiversity, agriculture, information, in an unprecedented manner. The growing importance of IP law has led to an exponential growth of academic research in this area. This Book offers a comprehensive overview of the methods and approaches that can be used to address and develop scholarly research questions related to IP law. In particular, this Book aims to provide a useful resource that can be used by IP scholars who are interested in expanding their expertise in a specific research method or seek to acquire an understanding of alternative lenses that could be applied to their research. Even though this Book does not claim to include all existing research methodologies, it represents one of the largest and most diverse compilations, which has been carried out to date. In addition, the authors of this Book comprise an equally diverse group of scholars from different jurisdictions, backgrounds, and legal traditions. This diversity, both regarding the topics and the authors, is a fundamental feature of the Book, which seeks to assist IP scholars worldwide in their research journeys." --

A law professor draws from social and cultural theory to defend her idea that that intellectual property law affects the ability of citizens to live a good life and prohibits people from making and sharing culture.

This book offers a critique of social justice theory and its impact on entrepreneurship scholarship. It traces its deep roots in postmodernism by positioning entrepreneurship within these new intellectual, social, and economic environments. It highlights current philosophical assumptions, with implications for boundary conditions that we apply as scientists. Science depends on theoretical assumptions and boundary conditions. Unfortunately, a glaring weakness in entrepreneurship research has been its general failure to identify these premises. No theory is universally applicable, so its assumptions and boundary conditions are what give it analytical power. Where do they come from? Simply stated, they come from a theory's philosophy of science. However, even more rare than stating assumptions and boundary conditions is to discuss a study's governing philosophy. In fact, no known research published in entrepreneurship has discussed a study's philosophical orientation. This provocative work details postmodern concerns related to critical theory, their origins, their status, and specifically how they impact entrepreneurship and those who are not designated as either the victimized or part of the white patriarchy. It will challenge the current direction of entrepreneurship research and confront the general acceptance of the tenets of postmodernism among management scholars.