No abstract available / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Private Law / unrestricted

No description available.

No description available.

Intellectual products, scientific knowledge, information, professional, scientific, spiritual and cultural potential of the society today are the driving force behind economic growth, determine the competitiveness of production. This sets a strengthening of the role of intellectual property. The crucial role of intellectual assets in the global economy growth determined the choice of innovative strategy by Ukraine in the 21 stcentury. The important part of that strategy is the development of the national legal framework that includes adoption of the national laws and accession to international agreements that become part of the national legislation. The solution of the problem of forming an effective system of protection of intellectual property is a prerequisite for building a strong background for an innovative model of Ukraine’s development, its modernization, and the raising of its competitiveness in a global social-economic system, and consequently - creating jobs in new industries that could shape a 21st century global economy - an economy based on knowledge. The following thesis is a qualitative study about intellectual property protection and intended for Ukrainian companies and for students as information paper because there is differences between the old system in former Soviet and the European/US systems that has to be understood and business in Ukraine as well as researchers/inventors has to adjust to this different situations in order for companies to exploit the full potential of their innovations, part of this is by IP protection.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Digital Rights Management systems (DRM) are frequently used by rightsholders in order to protect their works from the, very high indeed, possibility to be copied, altered or distributed without authorisation by users who take advantage of available state-of-the-art copying techniques. Because DRM are legally protected by anti-circumvention legislation both in the United States and in Europe, a debate goes on more than a decade now regarding their impact to the notion of “balance” among copyright stakeholders that traditionally underpinned copyright law. In this context, this study examines, in turn, the philosophical underpinnings of analogue and digital copyright law focusing of copyright exceptions, the development of a notion of a minimum of lawful personal use for the digital environment based on existing copyright exceptions and users’ expectations of personal use, and the impact of the use of DRM and of the introduction of anti-circumvention legislation to this notion. While the European Information Society Directive 2001/29/EC (EUCD) is the main legal instrument analysed and criticised, the role of other Directives is also examined to the extent they address the relationship between lawful personal use and anticircumvention legislation. Legal developments in the United States could not have been absent from this discussion since anti-circumvention legislation was introduced there much earlier than the EUCD and important case-law and legal commentaries have developed since. Following the identification of problems regarding the operation of a minimum of lawful personal use in digital settings, the proposal to introduce a right to engage in self-help circumvention afforded to users of DRM-protected works for Europe is put-forward. Such a right would not undermine rightsholders incentives to offer works online and develop new business models but would acknowledge the users’ interest to interact and tinker with digital works taking full advantage of the new possibilities offered by digitisation.

Intellectual Property (IP) is becoming an increasingly important source of collateral in debt-based financial transactions. This thesis will show that IP and financing are intrinsically linked. They both can be used to drive company growth. When the two interact a virtuous growth spiral can form. It will be shown that IP can be used to obtain financing which allows for company growth and the creation of more IP rights. The new IP rights then allow the IP owner to obtain more financing. The pattern of growth can continue in this pattern. However, due to the legal complications the formation of such a growth spiral is hindered. The thesis examines how security interests in intellectual property right are treated in secured finance law and IP law in the US and the UK. It will show that there is a conflict between laws particularly in the perfection and priority of such security interests. The conflict between the two sources of law makes it difficult to determine where a security interest must be registered in order to be perfected. The conflict also creates conflicting registers for such interests. Due to conflicting registration provisions it is also difficult to determine the priority of conflicting security interests in an IP right. Additionally, IP laws are often inadequate for determining issues on perfection and priority. The thesis will offer suggestion on legal reforms which will best alleviate the legal problems of taking security in an IP right.

No description available.