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Overlapping Intellectual Property Rights Neil Wilkof & Shamnad Basheer (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2012)
The overlap between intellectual property rights (IPRs) has received increased prominence in this technological era, where the boundaries between different realms of intellectual property (IP) are constantly shifting. Largely owing to developments in technology and the making of global IP law, the editors of the book argue, the subject matter of the protection has expanded and more tools are needed to ensure IP protection, thus contributing to these overlaps.1
The first remarkable thing to be noted in this book is the breadth of the subject areas covered and the wide range of authors and contributors involved. Edited by two scholars with extensive knowledge and experience in IP practice, the book contains 17 chapter contributions, made by an impressive list of distinguished scholars from diverse backgrounds, with a broad range of expertise in IP law and practice. The chapters discuss and illustrate various manifestations of the overlaps between and among conventional IPRs: patents, copyrights and trade-marks. More importantly, the book also covers IP overlaps in unexplored areas that are not generally associated with IP: the right of privacy, the right of publicity/tort of personality, database rights, unfair competition and antitrust law.
As the editors point out, the aims of the book are:2 1) to provide the reader with simple tools to understand the practical and theoretical implications of an overlap in IPRs, and 2) to address the gap in understanding of IP overlaps for IP law and practice. Premised on the prevalence of overlaps, the editors present the ''overlap of intellectual property" as an opportunity to be explored. The book therefore serves as an important resource for engaging IP matters in practice and as a reference for understanding the implications of IP overlaps for policy. In terms of its approach, the analytical focus of the book is largely doctrinal, focusing on the exposition of legislative enactments and judicial decisions across different jurisdictions, as well as on the principles that can be derived from these regarding IP overlaps. Normative and policy directions for IP overlaps are also considered as a corollary.
The book is structured on the basis of chapters that address pairs of IP laws: patents coupled with another right (chapters...