The subject of investigation of this book is the economic effect of intellectual property rights in general, and in particular, the harmonisation of such rights in Europe. The book is built upon two case studies. One is looking at the internal situation of the European Union by analysing the situation of patenting for biotechnological inventions in Europe. The other looks at a European Union related issue, that is the harmonisation and building-up process of intellectual property right systems in Central and Eastern European countries.

Klappentext

This book is the result of the PhD project I started four years ago at Europa-Kolleg Hamburg. I had the great opportunity to work on it for one year at the European University Institute in Florence and to finalise the oeuvre during my stay with the European Commission's Institute for Prospective Technological Studies in Seville. The subject matter of the book is intellectual property rights, patents in particular, and their process of harmonisation in Europe. At the beginning of the work, the intention was not to focus immediately on one narrow field in the huge realm of intellectual property rights but rather to open my mind in order to capture a broad variety of new ideas and concepts in the book. The work at three different institutes in three different European countries over the period of four years naturally exposed the work to diverging ideas and the exchange of views with many people. This is one reason for the wide spread of topics ordered around the given leitmotif, such as epistemological foundations, political background information,. the protection of biotechnological inventions and the building up process of intellectual property right systems in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In chapter two I take up Polanyi's differentiation of codifiable and tacit knowledge. Applying these concepts to my own work I realise that this book is only the visible and codified part of knowledge I was able to capture.

Inhalt

Introduction.- Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Technological Knowledge:Justifying Intellectual Property Rights; The Political Understanding; The Innovation Process; Technological Knowledge and Its Determinants; An Excursion into Epistomology and Its Implications for Intellectual Property; Conclusion.- Microeconomic Theory of Intellectual Property Rights:The General Theory; Market Structure and Innovation; The Incentive to Innovate; IPR (Patents) as an Economic Indicator; Conclusion.- Macroeconomic Theory of Intellectual Property Rights:Static Welfare Analysis of International Intellectual Property Rights; Criticism of the Static Welfare Approach; Dynamic Welfare Analysis of International Intellectual Property Rights; Summary of Arguments; Empirical Evidence on International Intellectual Property Rights; Foreign Direct Investment and Intellectual Property Rights; Tade and Intellectual Property Rights; Conclusion.- Harmonisation versus Differentiation: Global Aspects; European Aspects; The Hamonisation Process in Central and Eastern European Countries.- Patent Protection for Biotechnological Inventions: Introduction; Current Issues in Protection of Biotechnological Intellectual Property; Management of Patenting in European Biotechnology; Conclusion.- Patent Protection in Central and Eastern European Countries: Intellectual Property Rights, Technology and Trade; The Role of Intellectual Property Rights for Economic Growth; The Performance in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland; Correlation of Trade and Patenting?.- Summary and Conclusion.