The genome is one of the primordial elements of the human being and is responsible for human identity and its transmission to descendants. The gene as such ought not be appropriated or owned by man. However, any sufficiently complete description of a gene should be capable of being protected as intellectual property. Furthermore, all utilisations of a gene or its elements that permit developmen...

Two related trends characterize the recent past: value propositions are migrating from the physical to the informational, and value creation is shifting from firms to consumers. These two trends meet in the phenomenon of “consumer-generated intellectual property” (CGIP). This article addresses the question: “How should firms manage the intellectual property that their customers create?” It expl...

The last several decades have seen the emergence of intellectual property rights (IPRs), especially patents, as a key issue in developments across the fields of law, the economy and the biosciences, and as part of the burgeoning “bioeconomy”. This paper examines how the categories of nature and knowledge, so vital to IPR regimes that support bioeconomy-type projects, are challenged by the alleg...

The problem of hardware Trojans is becoming more serious especially with the widespread of fabless design houses and design reuse. Hardware Trojans can be embedded on chip during manufacturing or in third party intellectual property cores (IPs) during the design process. Recent research is performed to detect Trojans embedded at manufacturing time by comparing the suspected chip with a golden c...

The aim of this paper is to test whether patent-based indicators are still reliable measures of innovativeness in light of organizational changes in the field of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection and the regulatory reforms already under way respectively at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). For most high-tech industries, patents repres...

This article reviews intellectual property rights (IPRs), with some emphasis on the protection of agricultural and life sciences innovations. The main institutional features of IPRs are first discussed, along with a brief historical background and an articulation of the main rationale for the existence of such rights. This is followed by an overview of the principal economic issues related to I...

The importance of intellectual property (IP) in today's world cannot be overstated and, indeed, it is receiving a great deal of attention worldwide. To advance the cause of the rights and wrongs of the laws that promote and protect intellectual property at the national and international levels, education in intellectual property is required and must be advocated. We must make individuals, indus...

The aim of this paper is to test whether patent-based indicators are still reliable measures of innovativeness in light of organizational changes in the field of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection and the regulatory reforms already under way respectively at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). For most high-tech industries, patents repres...

The end of the twentieth century was marked by a sea change in global governance in the realm of intellectual property rights (IPRs). Whereas countries historically retained substantial autonomy with regard to what they defined as intellectual ‘‘property’’ and the rights granted to the owners of intellectual property, the 1990s witnessed the establishment of new global obligations regarding nat...

The relationship between genetic resources, Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) is among the most controversial agenda items in the negotiations of several international organisation. International debates about genetic resources and TK may have profound implications for indigenous and local communities. Yet, participation by local communities in the WTO and WIPO ...