Developing a Matrix for Intellectual Property as Subject of International Law

Abstract

Intellectual property disputes implicating diverse and seemingly unrelated international legal regimes have become more frequent, acrimonious, and high-stakes. This trend has spawned an enormous academic literature endeavoring to rationalize the approach various interpretive authorities take to intellectual property disputes. Graeme Austin and Larry Helfer\u27s Human Rights and Intellectual Property offered a framework by which to resolve claims for or against intellectual property protection based on human rights arguments; Susy Frankel has extensively assessed the application of customary international rules of interpretation in furtherance of a rationalizing approach to complex IP conflicts; and Jerry Reichman. Paul Uhlir. and Tom Dedeurwaerdere have developed comprehensive approaches to questions arising at the intersection of international research efforts and potential IP-related obstacles. Edited volumes by various authors similarly provide useful and targeted analyses of discrete IP-areas (e.g. patent and copyright) to particular contexts (e.g. development, disability, and innovation). The aforementioned works are by no means exhaustive but it is fair to say that none attempts to undertake the quite complex, more comprehensive question of intellectual property law as a fragmented part of the broader international legal order. Enter Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan\u27s “The Protection of Intellectual Property in International Law”. Ruse-Khan, University Lecturer and Fellow at King\u27s College, Cambridge applies the broader theoretical elaboration of international law\u27s fragmentation to intellectual property disputes so as to provide a more comprehensive approach to issues raised by intellectual property\u27s overlap with discordant international legal regimes other scholars have tackled through narrower lenses. This book is one I like a lot, and I hope others active in the study and shaping of international intellectual property law do as well