This thesis examines the development of copyright and patent protection in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia and proposes that intellectual property is not the correct mechanism for protecting computer software. Both copyright and patent protection are evaluated in relation to their application to protecting the various elements of software. The increased desire for patent protection of software in the United States has recently impacted the debate over the correct regime for intellectual property protection. There has also been a corresponding restriction in the application of copyright protection by the courts. Combined with an undercurrent of sui generis software legislation being advocated by academia this has lead to the situation where there is continuing uncertainty over which method of protection should be provided for software. It will be shown that copyright is inadequate for the protection of computer software and that it does not address the correct element requiring protection. Patents, by corollary, provide protection that is excessive. The socio-economic effects of patent protection will be shown to demonstrate that it is not a worthy successor or adjunct to copyright. While copyright has attempted to protect one aspect (source code) patents have attempted to protect another (functionality). The thesis identifies the fundamental flaws in the protection offered by both regimes and proposes that they are equally unsuitable for the protection of software. Software will be shown to possess a diverse array of elements that are largely indivisible if adequate protection is to be provided. It is proposed that software be considered as a new form of property, referred to as Binary property, which covers informational and information processing entities. Further, the existing common law principles should be applied to the aspects that are at the heart of the intellectual property protection dilemma. In reality the elements requiring protection in software are activities that wrongfully duplicate a work or replicate it to create clones. It will be shown that the common law principles of theft, trespass, breach of contract and passing-off are suitable for protecting developers from these infringements. It will also be contended that any legislative intervention should be limited so that a certain degree of replication is allowable where there is a benefit to society through technological advancement or enhancement through standardisation. As such the application of common law principles are applied in a minimalist legalistic environment. The minimalist approach takes the position that there should be minimal legislative intervention in the computer industry. It proposes that there should be legislative intervention to enable the existing common law to take account of computer technology and provide for its continuing impact on society that will accelerate into the next millennium. It further shows that the continuing development of computer technology will outpace intellectual property necessitating the recognition of computer software as a unique form of new property in existing jurisprudence. The application of existing common law principles of property and the reduction in the monopolistic nature of intellectual property will not only benefit the highly dynamic and creative international computer industry but it will also be in the best interests of the Australian software development industry.

Available via the Australian National University Library Electronic Pre and Post Print Repository. Title from title screen (viewed Mar. 28, 2003) Includes bibliographical references. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The principal purpose of this study is to provide a refined empirical investigation concerning country-specific determinants of horizontal and vertical intra-industry trade (IIT,) in relation to South Africa using the gravity model of trade in a panel data setting. Prior to investigating the case of South Africa's intra-industry trade a critical review of the relevant theoretical, methodologcal, and empirical literature is provided. The study operationalises the theoretical dstinction between horizontal and vertical IIT using the latest methodology of decomposing total IIT into horizontal intra-industry trade (HIIq and vertical intra-industry trade (WIT,). Thts study makes several advances on earlier empirical studies of intra-industry trade determinants. These include the introduction of new countq-specific determinants of intraindustry trade that previous studies have not examined. Furthermore, it is the first empirical study that traces the relationshp between intra-industry trade flows and intellectual property rights (IPRs). Moreover, to ensure the sensitivity and robustness of the results, several econometric approaches have been used in estimating the gravity model of South Africa's intra-industry trade: the consistent coefficient approach, the fixed effects approach, the random effects approach, and the between effects approach. The econometric results are generally satisfactory in terms of economic interpretation and statistical significance and thus offer new empirical validation to the theoretical explanatory variables. The key findngs suggest the following: the volume of South Africa's IIT has increased during the study period and its WIT exceeds its HIIT. The latter result reflects the nature of South Africa's trade as it imports high valued added products and exports primary and mineral products. South Africa's intra-industry trade and its two components are positively related to market size and standard of living, and negatively related to geographcal distance. Furthermore, separately, the IPRs and the imitation ability of South Africa's tradmg partners are not important factors in determining IIT flows; however, the interaction between them is an important factor. Thts study also reveals South Africa should pursue its intra-industry trade with rest of world concentrating on local industries that produce most competitive varieties, absorbing labor and other resources from the production of other varieties.

智慧財產權乃是人類智慧的結晶，為國勢強弱的指標。環顧自工業革命以還，智慧財產所有權法制之開展，不惟素執教有文化交流之前導，更形成二十世紀科技傳播之主要管道。是以智慧財產權制度之良寙，關係一國政經文教之盛衰，現代國家無不寄予非常之重視。 　　由於國際貿易的發達，以及國際關係的密切，一國經濟情況的變動，同時也影響到他國的經濟情況，因此國際局勢的演變，甚或一國在經濟政治策略上的修正，均足以使無數國家的經濟組合因此為之動搖，或毀滅。身處二十世紀複雜而微妙的國際關係裹，除了要了解並把握本國的經濟、社會、文化等實際情況外，更須要了解揣摩他國制度，從而異中求同，探索彼此間最大利益。 　　研究機關組織也是一樣，不可閉門造車，應多研究外國經驗，考慮問題不宜太細，並應將機關業務的特性納入考量。智慧財產權制度與工商業的發展是相輔相成的，愈是工商業發達的國家，有關智慧財產權的管理機構與法律規範也就愈為進步。歐、美、日先進工業國家在智慧財產權方面多係由獨立專責機構處理，我國現亦正積極準備成立智慧財產權專責機構，以利相關事務之推動。專利事務有別於一般行政事務，涉及技術與法律，目前大部分國家均由專利局或專利商標局掌理。亦有成立智慧財產局統籌專利、商標、著作權等智慧財產權事務。一個現代化的國家，未設置專門辦理專利、商標業務的專責機構者，幾可謂絕無僅有。職是之故，為求辦好專利、商標業務，我國應儘速成立專責機構，集專門人才於一爐，共策我國智慧財產權制度的健全與推行。 　　研究公共行政學最有意義的事，莫過於實際參與公共行政問題的解決。適逢此智慧財產權保護聲浪之際，筆者有幸，實際參與智慧財產權保護問題的解決。希望以個人微小的力量，將有關智慧財產權的問題加以分析研究，以能喚起政府當局及全國民眾正視與探討此一攸關經濟發展與文化提升之問題。而儘速成立智慧財產權專責機構，建立完善的審查制度，在形式上得以提升組織氣候；在實質上以發揮產業科技革新及提升文化水準的主導地位。 　　本文共分為七章三十一節，各章要旨如下： 　　第一章「緒論」，計分三節，包括研究動機與研究目的、研究方法與研究限制、研究流程與重要名詞界定。 　　第二章「智慧財產權的基本概念」，計分四節來討論，包括智慧財產權的意義、範圍、特性、重要性及功用，智慧財產權制度的沿革。 　　第三章「我國智慧財產權行政體制之現況」，計分四節來討論，包括我國智慧財產權制度之發展及現行專利權、商標權、著作權主管機關之現況等。 　　第四章「世界各國智慧財產權行政制度之現況」，計分七節來討論，包括日本、韓國、美國、德國、英國與中國大陸智慧財產權行政組織之現況及智慧財產權合作組織－歐洲專利局之設立與組織等。 　　第五章「我國現行智慧財產權制度所面臨的問題」，計分三節來討論，包括美國特別三○一條款-貿易報復的壓力、我國現行智慧財產權行政體制與有關體系及資源制度之缺失等。 　　第六章「我國智慧財產權行政組織重整之理論基礎」，計分五節來討論，包括組織的成長、演進與變遷，組織重組理論，行政組織與公務人力必須配合環境變遷作適時的調整，行政組織調整所面臨的問題，及研擬行政機關組織法規應遵循的事項等。 　　第七章「健全我國智慧財產權制度之研究發現與建議事項」，為研究建議及結語，計分五節，包括儘速設立一個健全而完善的智慧財產權專責機關、健全我國專利審查人員制度、健全我國智慧財產權相關體制、及我國應爭取加入世界相關組織以確保國人權益等。

<p>The evolving technology has over the past decade contributed to a bandwidth explosion on the Internet. This makes it interesting to look at the development of the workhorses of the Internet, the core routers. The main objective of this project is to develop a 16 port gigabit core router architecture using intellectual property (IP) blocks and a SoCBUS on-chip interconnection network. </p><p>The router architecture will be evaluated by making simulations using the SoCBUS simulation environment. Some changes will be made to the current simulator to make the simulations of the core router more realistic. By studying the SoCBUS network load the bottlenecks of the architecture can be found. Changes to the router design and SoCBUS architecture will be made in order to boost the performance of the router. </p><p>The router developed in this project can under normal traffic conditions handle a throughput of 16x10Gbit/s without dropping packets. This core router is good enough to compete with the top of the line single-chip core routers on the market today. The advantage of this architecture compared to others is that it is very flexible when it comes too adding new functionality. The general on-chip network also reduces the design time of this system.</p>

<p>Upphovsrätten har den senaste tiden varit ett av de mest omdiskuterade juridiska områdena. Dagens lagstiftning ger upphovsmäns prestationer skydd under hela upphovsmannens livstid plus i ytterligare 70 år medan en utövande musikers prestation endast skyddas i 50 år. En utövande musiker har således inte samma starka skydd som en upphovsman. EU-kommissionen har emellertid lagt fram ett förslag på förändring av de regler som omfattar just de utövande musikerna.</p><p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att diskutera om det finns ett behov av ett utökat skydd för utövande musiker. Vidare kommer vi att diskutera huruvida förslaget är en lämplig lösning för att uppnå ett starkare skydd för de utövande musikernas förevigade prestationer.</p>

This dissertation consists of three essays on regulation. In the first essay, "Firm Reputation and Screening at the Patent Office", we assert that the patent office is an important regulator, exerting influence on firm outcomes. Prior research argues that powerful groups such as top innovators are able to capture their regulators, gaining favorable treatment in return for either monetary contributions to legislators' political committees or hoped-for future employment of regulators in the firms they regulate or in the firms of their legal representatives. It is also argued that regulators face many audiences and attempt to maximize their legitimacy to political entities, legal entities, the general public and the firms affected by their regulation. This can introduce a lack of consistency in decision-making. Given the considerable power of many regulators, this has implications for both policy and firm strategy. / The patent office, in particular, faces considerable uncertainty about the value of the patent rights it provides. Further, patent examiners are under pressure to grant patents quickly and have no way of permanently disposing of an application other than by granting it. We argue that patent examiners tend to look for certain signals in attempting to determine the quality of the application. We assert that the patent office's focus on helping its clients obtain intellectual property rights make their clients' prior reputations most salient. Therefore examiners tend to rely on the prominence of the applicant in the prior patent art. This can grant either a positive or negative reputation depending upon the general reputation of that field in prior patent art. / We utilize a dataset of all patents granted from 2001--2003. We use examiner-added citations to prior patent art, controlling for applicant-added citations as a measure of examiner screening. We find that firm reputation for patenting influences the level of scrutiny to which a patent application is subjected. In the conclusion we discuss the implications of these findings. / In the second essay, "Which drugs obtain the Pediatric Exclusivity Provision" we examine the pediatric exclusivity regulation provision. Pediatric exclusivity is designed to reward companies for conducting pediatric trials for dosage and safety with 6 months' extra monopoly on their drug. Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys from 1996--2007 and drug data from the FDA, we find that companies appear to base the decision to conduct pediatric trials almost solely on the basis of current sales (and hence presumably future projected revenue). We find the threshold for a sharply increased probability of obtaining pediatric exclusivity is annual sales of $260 million in the prior year. We estimate, very conservatively, that the total liability to consumers is US$ 21 billion as of end 2007. / We also find, in accordance with prior criticism, that, (barring ADHD drugs, which are marketed primarily to minors) even after controlling for the total sales, the proportion of sales to minors does not affect the probability of obtaining pediatric exclusivity. This is in concordance with regulatory capture theory which would suggest that a powerful group (i.e., brand-name drug manufacturers) influenced Congress to pass this legislation to procure a benefit for themselves with a not-easily perceived cost to the much more diffuse group of pharmaceutical customers who pay brand-name prices for 6 more months as a result of delayed generic entry. / In the third essay "Pediatric Exclusivity - Are the intended benefits being realized?" we examine the underlying rationale for the pediatric exclusivity and test whether the intended benefits of pediatric exclusivity are being realized. The pediatric exclusivity rule is intended to provide benefits to pediatric patients by providing clinicians with label information regarding safety and dosage in pediatric populations. We test whether valuable and important information is being produced and disseminated by the clinical trials that are undertaken to gain pediatric exclusivity. We do this by examining the patterns of publication of clinical trials before and after pediatric exclusivity is obtained and by examining the patterns of prescriptions to minor patients before and after pediatric exclusivity is obtained. / We find no evidence of greater dissemination of pediatric information in the peer-reviewed literature after obtaining pediatric exclusivity. We also find no evidence of changing patterns of prescriptions to minor patients after pediatric exclusivity is obtained. This leads us to question the value of the information being provided and conclude that the intended benefits of pediatric exclusivity provision are not being realized. We conclude that pediatric exclusivity legislation is an example of regulatory capture, designed primarily to increase monopoly protection of the sales of brand-name drugs without producing many tangible benefits.

Recently, the potential conflict between intellectual property law and competition law within the European Union has become political as many of the Member States see the economic Holy Grail through the so called knowledge economy, an economy to which intellectual property is inextricable linked. The general rule in EC-law is that a holder of an intellectual property right is not obliged to license the use of that right to others. However, the law can intervene in certain specific circumstances, forcing an owner to license his right. Remedies of this kind are called compulsory licenses and have as their purpose to work as a safety valve, hindering the possible abuse of the exclusiveness following an IPR. An analysis of the EC Commission’s Microsoft Decision reveals that the Decision is inconsistent with settled case law from the European Court of Justice in a number of respects. The Decision is unclear and it will be difficult, close to impossible to predict how this approach will be applied in future cases. The Decision taken by the Commission in Microsoft states a new legal and economic policy for Europe, a paradigm applying a new standard on when a compulsory license could be ordered. The analysis show that this paradigm represent a considerable loosening of the circumstances when a remedy of a compulsory license could be ordered and, as a consequence, introduces a considerable degree of legal uncertainty. This uncertainty can have a substantial effect on innovations by market leaders around the whole world who market their products in Europe.

Möbeldesign, d.v.s. en möbels utseende, är betydelsefullt av flera anledningar. Det är därför vanligt förekommande med s.k. efterbildning. Hur mycket en formgivare får inspireras av föregångare och därmed hur rättsligt skyddad en möbel är mot efterbildning har argumenterats vara ett av immaterialrättens mest svårlösta problem. Uppsatsen utreder vilket skydd en möbel ges mot efterbildning genom upphovsrätten, mönsterrätten och gemenskapsformgivningen. Dessutom undersöks om dagens rättsliga skydd är anpassat till möbeldesignföretagens behov. För att kunna utreda vilket rättsligt skydd en möbel har mot efterbildningar måste först utredas vilka möbler som är ”skyddsbara”. Avgörande för mönsterrätten och gemenskapsformgivningen är huruvida möbeln anses som ny och särpräglad. Avgörande för upphovsrätten är verkshöjd, vilket innebär att möbeln ska ha en utseendemässig distans från föregångarna. Det får anses att det är svårare för en möbel att uppnå verkshöjd än vad det är för samma möbel att anses som ny och särpräglad. Bedömningen av skyddsbarhet är idag inte den viktiga utan istället är bedömningen av skyddsomfånget som är den viktiga. Bedömningen av skyddsomfånget är direkt avgörande för vilket skydd en möbel ges mot efterbildningar. Skyddsomfånget skiljer sig från möbel till möbel och från skydd till skydd. Den oregistrerade gemenskapsformgivningen ger endast skydd mot direkta efterbildningar. Mönsterrätten och den registrerade gemenskapsformgivningen kräver dock inte att det är fråga om direkta efterbildningar. Rättsligt skydd ges gentemot alla andra möbler som inte ger en kunnig användare ett skiljaktigt helhetsintryck. Upphovsrätten kan ge skydd mot möbler som ger ett påfallande likt helhetsintryck. Det är svårt att bestämma en möbels rättsliga skyddsomfång. Bedömningarna är komplexa och en avvägning måste göras mellan å ena sidan formgivarens skyddsbehov, å andra sidan samhällets intresse av effektiv konkurrens och produktutveckling. Detta får anses som immaterialrättens största svårighet. Möbeldesignföretagens önskemål om att förenkla skyddet, är därför svårt att tillgodose. Om en förenkling sker kan de avvägningar som måste göras bli felaktiga, vilket inte kan anses lämpligt. Möbeldesignföretagens andra önskemål, att möbler ges ett brett skydd, kan dock vara möjligt att tillfredsställa. Om kravet på verkshöjd skärps kan upphovsrätten ge möbeldesign ett bredare skyddsomfång.

This study provides an empirical analysis of patent litigation and innovation within high-tech firms. There is a significant drop in R&D over the course of the eleven year period of interest. However, the results do not show litigation causing a significant effect on R&D investments as either a percentage of revenue or a percentage change from year to year. Secondly, there was found to be a slight drop in percentage change of patents earned per year over time, but this was not found to be significantly caused by litigation. However there is strong evidence to support that increased litigation does cause the percentage of patents classified as utility patents to fall. Since this ratio of utility patents per total patents can be viewed as an indicator of innovative quality, this trend suggests that litigation does cause overall innovative quality of a firm’s efforts to diminish.