Description:

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.