Diversity in Intellectual Property: Identities, Interests, and Intersections

This book aims to create an interface between intellectual property and diversity – including cultural, biological, religious, racial, and gender based-diversity. While acknowledging that the historical rationale for intellectual property protection is based on theories of utilitarian incentives and property rights, the authors of this volume assert that the current intellectual property framework is not incompatible with including diversity as part of its objectives. Through its various themes, this book delves into the debate of whether such inclusion can be made possible and how intellectual property norms could be effectively used to protect and promote diversity. In this volume, leading scholars address ongoing regional, national, and international debates within the contexts of diversity, the existing legal framework, and the broader political and economic climate. The authors tackle such wide-ranging topics as the prohibition against trademarking slurs and concepts of intellectual property in ancient Indian texts.

Irene Calboli is Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School and a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law at the National University of Singapore. Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals in Europe, the United States, and Asia, including the International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law, the European Intellectual Property Review, the Illinois Law Review, the Florida Law Review, and the American University Law Review, among others. Her recent edited books include Trademark Protection and Territoriality Challenges in a Global Economy (2014, with E. Lee), and The Law and Practice of Trademark Transactions (2015, with J. de Werra).

Srividhya Ragavan is Professor of Law at the University of Oklahoma, College of Law. Ragavan's scholarship focuses on the interplay between international trade law and intellectual property issues with a developmental perspective. Her scholarship has been published in leading journals in the United States, Europe, and Asia, including the Arizona State Law Review, the Duke Journal of Law and Technology, and the International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law. Her publications explore such diverse topics as trade, traditional knowledge, pharmaceutical patenting, and agricultural subsidies. Ragavan is the author, recently, of Patent and Trade Disparities in Developing Countries (2012).