Handbook of Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights: Evolving Scholarship and Reflections

Providing a panoramic overview of the field, this Handbook examines the intellectual property (IP) rights that protect artistic and inventive works, demonstrating that innovation and creativity require appropriate practical institutions alongside imagination and inspiration. Advancing key debates in the field, it identifies important reforms and mechanisms to improve IP systems for both the creators and users of protected works.

Chapters cover key forms of IP, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrecy, open innovation and traditional knowledge. Adopting a global perspective, the Handbook reviews international, regional and multilateral IP agreements alongside country-specific case studies. Expert authors critically analyse the balance between IP protection and access to inventive works, investigating limitations and exceptions to IP rights such as fair use and compulsory licensing. Ultimately, they highlight the relevance of IP to modern challenges from pandemics, food security and climate change to economic development and artificial intelligence.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the Handbook of Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights is a vital resource for students and scholars of economics, law and business. It also provides policymakers with important practical advice on constructing effective IP regimes.

Edited by Walter G. Park, Professor of Economics, College of Arts and Sciences, American University, USA