This diploma thesis identifies the most important changes in legislation and submitted proposals in the area of copyright between years 2012 and 2013 and in the beginning of 2014 in the Czech Republic, the EU and the USA. These changes are evaluated from a legislative point of view and also from the point of view of a music consumer. For thorough understanding, the thesis contains also an overview of the current Czech legislation of copyright. Furthermore, it evaluates the current situation in a broader context of law, history, technology, culture and consumer behaviour and defines it as opposed to previous periods. It describes the history of music piracy and its current situation and features some of the most important cases of copyright enforcement of the period 2012 to 2014. The thesis contains also a research performed in the Czech Republic and Sweden, which describes past and present habits of music listeners. Following the identification of previous development and current trends, the thesis discovers future development and suggests future solutions to the problem of copyright in music.

Intellectual property (IP), is mostly associated with being immaterial. The term "property right" refers to a right or a set of rights one can enforce by means of benefits or use over a resource. Those rights may be transferable and may be treated as property or resources themselves. As from a historical point of view, different IP components developed independently on each other, this paper examines patents, utility models, registered designs, trademarks, and copyright individually. In order to answer the first research question "What means of protection are best suited for medical breakthroughs?", it adds a Supplementary Medical Certificate to a list of possible IPP tools. Even though this mean of protection is not recognized worldwide, it extends the regular protection period of a patent, and thus is commonly used. There are limitations to medical related IP protection as well, e.g. compulsory licensing which occurs when a government allows someone to produce a patented medication without the consent of the patent owner. IPP is also used to secure access to innovative and expensive medications in third world countries by tier pricing or licensing. The second research question "Under what circumstances is applying for a medical related trademark cost beneficial?" is answered through a case study. Its main goal is to extend on the theoretical part, and apply for a trademark with the Intellectual Property Office in Czech Republic (IPO CZ). In addition, the entire application process is thoroughly described and can serve as guideline for future applicants, not only with the IPO CZ as the application process with any national IP office is rather similar. In combination with a successful application, this is one of the most important findings.

The entry of China into the globalized world and onto the stage of the global automarket has presented auto manufacturers with the largest ever market opportunity. While global competitive forces drive firms to develop product innovation through their global supply chains, the approach of global auto manufacturers and their first tier suppliers has been to bring existing technology into China. Only recently has the supply chain in China become integrated into the global product innovation cycle. While innovations generated by supply channel relationships, as opposed to individual partners, are playing an increasingly important role in the success of all supply chain partners, there has been limited research in the literature on how supply chain relationships cultivate the process of such innovation generation, particularly in China. Correspondingly, this study explores how multinational suppliers can develop adaptive product innovation in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage in China and how the protection of their knowledge helps them sustain it. Drawing on the knowledge-based view and transaction cost economics, and integrating those with behavioural governance and the institution-based view this study identifies drivers of product innovation for MNC suppliers in their relationships with Chinese OEMs, investigates the influence of supplier involvement and knowledge protection on supplier product innovation and examines the outcomes in the specific context of the Chinese automotive industry from the first-tier supplier perspective. Survey results of 170 multinational automobile suppliers in China indicate support for most of the hypotheses. Specifically, knowledge protection is found to have an impact on product innovation in the context of the auto industry in China. Supplier involvement in co-design and co-development with an automotive OEM customer has an inverted U-shaped relationship with product innovation. Furthermore, trust and technological uncertainty are found to drive greater product innovation. In addition, the institutional environment moderates the effect of product innovation on performance. Overall, this study enhances the understanding of how MNC suppliers can acquire local knowledge, develop products adapted to the local market requirements and foster product innovation while retaining their knowledge and know-how and minimizing negative effects of spill-overs to the local competition in the automotive industry in China.

In advanced industrial economies where, increasingly, intellectual assets are the principal source of value, productivity, and growth, strong intellectual property rights (IPRs)—conferred by patents, copyrights, and penalties for misappropriation of trade secrets—are an important inducement to invention and investment. For this reason, the extension and strengthening of IPRs in the United States and elsewhere in the past twenty-five years were appropriate and probably necessary. It may be that in some respects those processes should proceed further. On the other hand, there is growing friction over the assertion and exercise of some IPRs, particular patents, and claims that in some circumstances they may be discouraging research, its communication, and use. The question arises whether in some respects the strengthening and extension have proceeded too far. It is well known that the use of, reliance upon, and effects of patent protections vary across industries and technologies, but until recently there has been remarkably little empirical research documenting these differences. Fortunately, this is beginning to change, and the effects of some of the policy changes in the 1980s and 1990s are beginning to be investigated. Some evidence suggests that the effort to strengthen patent rights has indeed increased their importance and may have contributed to the growth of industrial R&D funding. On the other hand, recent survey evidence indicates that U.S. manufacturing firms in most industries rely more heavily on trade secrecy, lead time, and other technological protections to recoup their R&D investments than they do on legal mechanisms such as patents. This thesis examines the effects that a stronger, broader patent regime is having on today's industries. The main issues that emerge are those of patent quality and scope, as caused by problems with patent administration and litigation. Various solutions to these problems are then investigated, and recommendations made for future reform. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

It is well recognized that there are imperfections in the market for knowledge transfer due to the nature of ideas and inventions. This is consistent with market failures commonly discussed in the economics of information literature. Some of the impediments to efficiency axe examined here in three essays—one empirical, one theoretical, and one case study—all of which share the theme of scientific knowledge movement. The first essay is empirical and measures the systematic effects of direct interaction and geographic distance between university and firm scientists on the economic performance of imported inventions. This study concludes that, with respect to licensing royalties, scientific interaction has an elasticity of approximately 3 at the mean, which is highly robust, and that distance does not have a significant effect after controlling for interaction. This suggests imperfections in the market for know-how that are sensitive to distance. The second essay is a case study of an invention from the area of robotics and control systems and augments the empirical work presented in the previous essay by illustrating specific reasons why interaction was important for the commercialization of one particular early stage invention. The third essay develops a game theoretic model involving the strategic manipulation of incentives by an incumbent to create an 'intellectual property commons' for the purpose of preventing the commercial development of a disruptive technology that would otherwise threaten existing industry margins. The strategy of spoiling incentives to commercialize public sector scientific inventions by eliminating exclusive intellectual property rights—the strategy of the commons—is motivated by a fear of cannibalization and supported by a credible threat. It is shown that the degree of cannibalization to which the new technology exposes the old market is responsible for this market failure. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The aim of this Master's Thesis is to explore, analyze and discuss of the role and position of the innovation policies' ecosystems, the role of incentives in general and particularly within the sphere of intellectual property rights (IPR). The paper consists of two key parts. Firstly, it discuss the role of innovation, justification of incentives and purpose of the IPR protection as the means of addressing market failures, which hinder the innovation process, especially for the small and medium enterprises. Secondly, analysis was conducted within the series of case studies, including Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, United States, China and India. The divergence of the list of countries should provide representative list of measures and incentives employed and utilized in various systems of Innovation governance. Overall findings are compared with the system in the Czech Republic in order to provide prospects for the potential adjustments.

This master's thesis deals with a topical subject of intellectual property rights infringements as an example of a misleading commercial practice. The aim of the theoretical part is an analysis of the available data covering the topic. The paper also contains Czech and European statistics of goods infringing intellectual property rights. The thesis then focuses mainly on the issue of an illegal alcohol trade. The objective of the practical part is an analysis of consumer preferences and behaviour of Prague residents in the purchase and consumption of spirits. Another objective is an analysis of a change of consumer preferences and behaviour of Prague residents as an impact of recently revealed cases of a sell of harmful alcohol. The objectives are met via a quantitative questionnaire survey.

The work deals with the topic of entry of foreign entrepreneurs to the Czech market on the background of two different forms of business - franchising and a limited liability company. The main topic concentrates on the comparison of legislation and contractual framework of these two business forms, primarily focusing on intellectual property and the protection of intangible assets. The work presents general legal provisions related to contracts in the field of intellectual property rights, including licensing agreements. The work is further devoted to franchising and limited liability companies. The business of foreign entrepreneurs is related to the internationality of the contractual process. Contractual cooperation of more entrepreneurs also requires the existence of statutory regulation of competition law, with a special focus on franchising in this work. The application part of the thesis is dedicated to the protection of intellectual property rights, rendering an example of a particular foreign entrepreneur doing business gradually through franchising, and then through a limited liability company founded as a subsidiary of a foreign parent company. Access of entrepreneurs to intellectual property protection during the expansion of their business is analyzed by individual types of intangible assets, such as trademark or know-how. The aim of the work is to highlight the specifics of each business forms and identify problems associated with the provision of intellectual property rights.

Internet piracy has recently been addressed by several policies introduced in US, such as SOPA and ACTA. These policies suggest the general opinion to be that piracy reduce profits. The focus of this thesis is therefore put on the introduction of theoretical concept capable of describing possible piracy impacts and then showing empirical observations to prove it. We developed our own modified time-dependent model of demand function with network effect, which suggests that piracy can have indeed different results on producers' profits depending on the conditions. Further, we showed on real data that the resulting piracy effect in film industry is indefinite and piracy in other industries results in various outcomes.

In the wake of diversifying economy through science and technology, the government of Botswana is particularly inclined to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). IPR in its nature of advocating exclusive rights by the creator comes into direct conflict with the practice and understanding of IKS as community property, and a shared resource. To date, there is very little research work that explores policymakers’ knowledge about IPR and IKS in developing countries. Botswana, a developing country is yet to benefit from this type of research. This research investigated policymakers’ knowledge and practices of IPR on IKS in Botswana. The focus was on policymakers’ knowledge and practices, interaction with policy, and how their actions could be understood and explained. The study was conducted in four government departments, and one non-governmental organisation. Semi-structured interviews and document analysis were used to collect data. The findings of the study show that there is general lack of understanding about IPR in the public domain. Policymakers nonetheless know quite substantially about IPR and very little about IKS. This position puts indigenous knowledge on the periphery, and on the brink of being swallowed by other technologies. Moreover, the study uncovered evidence that the IPR and IKS activities are fragmented and policymakers treat each other with a great deal of suspicion and misunderstanding, hence affecting successful implementation of policy and projects particularly between two units in the study- the ministry of Communication, Science and Technology and the ministry of Trade and Industry. The study concludes by arguing that policymakers still require a great deal of assistance to really make sense of their practice. A lot of teaching and learning about policy is necessary to encourage broader participation in science policymaking in the context of a developing country like Botswana. / Dissertation (MEd (Science and Technology Education))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted