The Making of Modern Intellectual Property Law

One of the common themes in recent public debate has been the law's inability to accommodate the new ways of creating, distributing and replicating intellectual products. In this book the authors argue that in order to understand many of the problems currently confronting the law, it is necessary to understand its past. This is its first detailed historical account. In this book the authors explore two related themes. First, they explain why intellectual property law came to take its now familiar shape with sub-categories of patents, copyright, designs and trade marks. Secondly, the authors set out to explain how it is that the law grants property status to intangibles. In doing so they explore the rise and fall of creativity as an organising concept in intellectual property law, the mimetic nature of intellectual property law and the important role that the registration process plays in shaping intangible property.

ISBN 0521563631   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780521563635 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 560 Publisher Cambridge University Press   Published in Cambridge Imprint Cambridge University Press   Series editor Cornish, W.R., Dessemontet, Franois, Goldstein, Paul Format Hardback   Series title Cambridge Intellectual Property and Information Law Publication date 08 Jul 1999   Height (mm) 228 Library of Congress 2001035099   Width (mm) 152 DEWEY 346.42048   Spine width (mm) 19 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level Professional / Scholarly Pages 264

		Acknowledgments
		List of abbreviations
		Table of statutes and bills
		Table of cases
1		Introduction		1
Pt. 1		Towards a property in intangibles		9
1		Property in mental labour		11
2		The mentality of intangible property		43
Pt. 2		The emergence of modern intellectual property law		61
3		Designing the law		63
4		Managing the legal boundaries		77
Pt. 3		Towards an intellectual property law		95
5		Crystallisation of the categories		101
6		Completing the framework		129
7		Explanations for the shape of intellectual property law		141
Pt. 4		Transformations in intellectual property law		159
8		Changes in the framework		161
9		From creation to object		173
10		Closure and its consequences		194
11		Remembering and forgetting		205
		Bibliography		221
		Index		237

'Whilst the book contains many historical details about various statutes, the authors are much more concerned with concepts, narratives and trends. Their real aim is to provide a better understanding of modern intellectual property law and the problems that are associated with it. ... This is an excellent and much needed contribution to the study of intellectual property law. Far too often those working in this field are concerned solely with the day to day development of its object of protection and the need to protect various (new) forms of creation and innovation. This book provides the in depth analysis of the concepts that should shape the development of a coherent long-term strategy. ' Paul Torremans, University of Leicester 'Bently and Sherman take a wide legal perspective and offer helpful readings and insights, although always acknowledging the fluidity of the themes and concepts they address. It is an ambitious project, persuasively executed. They make a convincing case for their argument that a sensitive appraisal and understanding of past narratives is essential if - as we must - we are to create the new narratives needed to meet new demands.' The Cambridge Law Journal 'This is a very readable and thought provoking book which should be of interest to anyone concerned with the philosophical basis of intellectual property law and the reform of that law to accommodate the demands of twenty-first entry technology. The authors certainly make their point that to know where we are going, we need to know where we began.' Media & Arts Law Review

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