Principles of Intellectual Property Law

545 Pages·2001·1.8 MB·English

by  Catherine Colston

Principles of
Intellectual
Property
Law
C
P
Cavendish
Publishing
Limited
London • Sydney
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
PRINCIPLES OF LAW SERIES
PROFESSOR PAULDOBSON
Visiting Professor at Anglia Polytechnic University
PROFESSOR NIGELGRAVELLS
Professor of English Law, Nottingham University
PROFESSOR PHILLIPKENNY
Professor and Head of the Law School, Northumbria University
PROFESSOR RICHARD KIDNER
Professor at the Law Department, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
In order to ensure that the material presented by each title maintains the
necessary balance between thoroughness in content and accessibility in
arrangement, each title in the series has been read and approved by an
independent specialist under the aegis of the Editorial Board. The Editorial
Board oversees the development of the series as a whole, ensuring a
conformity in all these vital aspects.
Principles of
Intellectual
Property
Law
Catherine Colston, LLB, LLM
Lecturer in Law
University of Buckingham
C
P
Cavendish
Publishing
Limited
London • Sydney
First published in Great Britain 1999 by Cavendish Publishing Limited
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© Colston, C 1999
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Colston, Catherine
Principles of intellectual property law (Principles of law series)
1 Intellectual property – Law and legislation – Great Britain
I Title
346.4'1'048
ISBN 1 85941 465 6
Printed and bound in Great Britain

FOR THE GGs
WITH LOVE
PREFACE
Intellectual property law is fascinating. We are all familiar with, and are users
of, intellectual property. In addition, the subject matter of intellectual property
– the application of an idea in making or selling products and services – forms
the fundament of a society’s cultural, technological, educational and economic
development. With the growth of trade and of the transfer of information on a
world wide scale, both intellectual property law and intellectual property
infringement are a global concern. Continuing rapid technological
development challenges and expands traditional boundaries of intellectual
property regimes. Digital recording technology, the internet, genetic
engineering all pose new challenges and new opportunities. In all, this is a
dynamic and developing subject which touches on a wide area of human
concern – trade, economic progress, intellectual and cultural advancement,
and the acquisition and dissemination of information, as well as the more
prosaic acquisition of goods and chattels.
The book is designed, when used in conjunction with a statute book, to
give a comprehensive and comprehensible introduction to intellectual
property law in the UK, within the international framework of conventions,
treaties and agreements which shape those domestic laws. The dual aim has
been to make the subject both understandable and enjoyable.
It was the preparation of teaching materials for the University of
Buckingham’s part time LLB course which prompted this book and I
gratefully acknowledge the University’s permission to draw on those
copyright Intellectual Property course materials.
It only remains to give further thanks where thanks are eminently due: to
my collegues for their support and encouragement, to Louise Hammond,
Librarian of the Denning Law Library at the University of Buckingham for her
help in tracing materials, to Rob Colston for his unfailing patience and, last,
but by no means least, to Elanor and Andy Mac, and Bridget and Dave for
preserving a much needed sense of proportion.
Catherine Colston
August 1999
vii

CONTENTS
Preface vii
Table of Cases xxv
Table of Statutes xlvii
Table of Statutory Instruments liii
Table of European Legislation lv
Table of International Leglislation lix
Table of Abbreviations lxi
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 PROTECTION FOR IDEAS 2
1.2 MEANS FOR PROTECTING IDEAS 3
1.2.1 Secrecy 3
1.2.2 Exclusive rights 3
1.2.3 Checks and balances on exclusive rights 6
1.3 SOURCES OF INTELLECTUALPROPERTYLAW 7
1.3.1 National sources 7
1.3.2 International sources 8
1.3.3 Treaties and conventions 9
1.3.4 The territoriality of intellectual property rights 12
1.4 BASIC FORMAT TO INTELLECTUALPROPERTYISSUES 12
SUMMARYOF CHAPTER 1 13
2 JUSTIFICATION 15
2.1 OBJECTIONS TO EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS 15
2.1.1 Economic objections to monopoly power 16
2.1.2 Objections from developing countries 17
2.1.3 An alternative approach: unfair competition 18
2.2 JUSTIFICATIONS 20
2.2.1 Public justifications 21
2.2.2 Private justification 21
ix