Economic and Legal Issues in Intellectual Property

Nine scholarly papers examine the economic and legal issues fundamental to the intellectual property debate. Topics include economic incentives to innovate, copyright law and infringement, trademarks, IP rights for artists, indigenous knowledge and university research, new knowledge economy and society, country risk and innovation, and legal protection of IP.

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• Includes nine state-of-the-art survey papers including contributions from Jerry Hausman, Gregory K. Leonard, Dora Marinova, Margaret Raven, and Richard Watt
  
• Evaluates the relationships between the knowledge economy, knowledge society, and intellectual property which are often not clearly articulated
  
• Interdisciplinary approach enables readers from a wide range of disciplines to appreciate the recent and significant developments in these fields

1. Intellectual property and economic incentives: Michael McAleer and Les Oxley.

2. Real options and patent damages: The legal treatment of non-infringing alternatives and incentives to innovate: Jerry Hausman and Gregory K. Leonard.

3. How to best ensure remuneration for creators in the market for music? Copyright and its alternatives: Stan J. Liebowitz and Richard Watt.

4. What’s in a sign? Trademark law and the economic theory: Giovanni B. Ramello.

5. Copyright and artists: A view from cultural economics: Ruth Towse.

6. Indigenous knowledge and intellectual property: A sustainability agenda: Dora Marinova and Margaret Raven.

7. University research, intellectual property rights and European innovation systems: Bart Verspagen.

8. Beyond the hype: Intellectual property and the knowledge society/knowledge economy: K.C. Carlaw, L. Oxley, D.C. Thorns, M. Nuth and P. Walker.

9. How does country risk affect innovation? An application to foreign patents registered in the USA: Suhejla Hoti and Michael McAleer.

10. Intellectual property litigation activity in the USA: Suhejla Hoti, Michael McAleer and Daniel Slottje.

Michael McAleer is Professor of Economics (Econometrics) at the University of Western Australia in Perth.

Les Oxley is Professor of Economics at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia.

Just how much should society protect intellectual property from infringement? Are safeguards necessary to ensure economic incentives for inventors, or is the wiser course to distribute gains more equitably through public acquisition of IP rights? Knowledge and intellectual property are widely regarded as key drivers of economic and social well-being. Yet this relationship is frequently misunderstood. In this volume, from the Surveys of Recent Research in Economics series, authors Michael McAleer and Les Oxley review in-depth the economic and legal ramifications of the IP rights question.

History teaches us that each technological advancement creates its own winners and losers. The debate between the push for individual control of property rights and the drive to build an 'intellectual commons' for the good of all is an inevitable component of 'political economy'. This book explores the role of economic incentives in society and ultimately how to protect the rights of both producers and consumers.