INTERNATIONAL / INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY / SURVIVAL OF SYSTEM

Oxford Today, Michaelmas Issue, 2000

Patently Absurd

David Vaver

The article in Oxford Today is a summary of the Inaugural Lecture of the author as Reuters Professor of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law in the University of Oxford. It questions the concept of intellectual property, which "is just the fashionable phrase for a whole range of disparate rights" protecting in various ways products of the human mind. The range of these products and the scope of legal protection afforded to them have grown substantially and are continuing to grow. In the copyright field, the duration of protection has been extended; and, although the original idea of copyright did not encompass the making of a work in a different version or medium, that has all changed. Yet "copyright, originally designed for the distribution of printed copies, has become less able to cope with the manipulation and movement of intangible electronic streams as users modify data at will, replicate items almost infinitely and transmit them anywhere in the world". There is a risk that copyright, in common with other intellectual property rights, may protect the trivial and restrict other rights. Neither the "intellectual" nor the "property" element of the phrase is persuasive; and "the property language helps tip the balance against other rights, such as freedom of expression". The balance needs to be kept under constant review; otherwise, the pressure for greater protection of intellectual property rights may lead to the diminution of competition and of healthy imitation. The author concludes that, if the intellectual property system is to survive, "it must win public respect: there are calls for the public to become better educated about intellectual property, but such a public would surely demand a greater coherence and persuasiveness from the system than it exhibits at present". [20033]