Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 149 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Who cares about who owns online courses? Nobody, because that is not what the issue is really about. Ownership is an emotional issue, but controlling the rights of a copyrightable work is tangible and logical. The important question to answer is not who owns online courses, but who controls the rights of any copyrightable work. For universities and faculty members, getting over the emotional issues and down to the foundation of what is truly at stake is of major concern. While it is nearly impossible to create qualitative guidelines for copyright policies and/or contracts, it is eminently possible to examine existing policies and contracts and relate how a handful of universities are handling copyright and intellectual property issues pertaining to online courses. / ABSTRACT: The purpose of this thesis is to provide a starting point for this complex transaction in the form of a resource tool that includes some basic background about copyright law, relevant case law related to "work-for-hire," and relevant academic freedom issues. The original work of this thesis is the creation of a tool, which reviews of a sampling of university policies pertaining to online copyright issues and ownership. Accordingly, the contribution this thesis makes to the understanding and clarification of universities policies related to online material copyright ownership will be important for faculty members and universities in two ways. First, it will help others develop better online copyright policies based on tangible issues rather than emotional ones. Second, this thesis can be a basis for others to build upon for future research on this important topic. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

As a response to trade marks’ enhanced importance within trade, the EU’s interest in the area has increased by proponing a harmonization of the member states’ trade mark pro-tection so far as needed to preserve the EU’s objective of an internal market. The area is therefore regulated by an EU Directive, however allowing some national discretion. The purpose of this study was to investigate if a specific part of the trade mark protec-tion, the assessment-based confusion doctrine, corresponds on a Swedish and EU level. The aim was to locate statutory discrepancies in order to stimulate further review of the practical application of the doctrine from the analytical perspective of legal certainty. A scientifically accepted and traditional legal research method was applied when ex-amining and interpreting the sources of law. In addition, a comparative study was con-ducted between the two investigated legal systems to achieve the overall purpose. When comparing the results from the investigated sources, the legislations present a sta-tutory diversity, opening up for practical discrepancies. So was also the case with the application at the early stage of national implementation of the EU Directive. The tradi-tional national confusion doctrine, prescribing a more legal-technical assessment, did not correspond to the more flexible and contemporary EU view. Consequently, some national courts had to endure criticism for not adjusting to the EU development. Later case law however presents a very positive transition to the EU view of the confu-sion doctrine, suggesting a partial abandonment of the national legal sources of law for the benefit of EU law. Conclusion was however that despite this practical transition to EU law, statutory changes are necessary in order to safeguard the legal certainty in the way of achieving predictability.

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For many years pharmaceutical patents and their impact on prices have been at the centre of the international debate over insufficient access to lifesaving HIV/AIDS medicines in developing countries. The conflict has largely revolved around the implementation of an intellectual property system in the developing world, subsequent the adaptation of the TRIPS Agreement, which has made a 20 year pharmaceutical patent protection mandatory for these countries and consequently contributed to high drug prices for patented medicines as well as limited the use of generic drugs. Developing countries, where patents are already in place, have sought to reduce high drug prices by making use of compulsory licensing, a safeguarding practice allowing the production or importation of a generic medicine without the consent of the patent holder. Compulsory licences are allowed under the TRIPS Agreement, but disagreements about the conditions, under which compulsory licences are available for ‘essential medicines’, have restricted their use. A definition of the extent to which compulsory licensees can export generic drugs to developing countries unable to manufacture their own has been missing, but on 30 August 2003 the WTO announced that it had resolved this problem by lifting the TRIPS Agreement’s restrictions on exports and permitting exports of drugs produced under a compulsory license as an exception to a patent right. The main question is whether the compulsory licensing system as prescribed in the recent Decision is an ample means of improving access to patented AIDS medicines in the developing world. By means of legal and economic reasoning this master thesis argues that the 30 August Decision on lifting TRIPS’ restrictions on exports of patented pharmaceuticals produced under compulsory licences provides complex and uncertain rules, rendering an unreliable employment of compulsory licensing. It is desirable that further recommendations are given on which generic producing companies should be awarded compulsory licences and also on which premises. In reality, the debate about compulsory licensing is part of a much wider structural problem in development policy. The solution to the inaccessibility problem requires a mix of courses of action with a functioning compulsory licensing system included. However, disagreements such as how necessary funding should be divided equitably between developed countries could protract the reaching of a pragmatic solution.

Intelektinės nuosavybės teisių išsėmimo taisyklė – vienas glaudžiausiai su prekyba ir laisvo prekių judėjimo principu susijusių intelektinės nuosavybės teisės institutų, sukeliantis ne tik teisines, bet ir ekonomines pasekmes. Pagrindinis nagrinėjamo instituto taikymo tikslas Europos Sąjungos teisėje – užtikrinti tinkamą pusiausvyrą tarp intelektinės nuosavybės teisių apsaugos, teisių turėtojo interesų ir laisvo prekių judėjimo principo. Teisių išsėmimo taisyklės taikymas sąlygoja tai, kad tam tikroje teritorijoje pirmą kartą teisių turėtojui ar jo sutikimu pardavus intelektinės nuosavybės teisės saugomas prekes, teisė toliau kontroliuoti šių prekių perleidimą toje teritorijoje yra išsemiama. Teisės doktrinoje skiriamas nacionalinis, regioninis ir tarptautinis intelektinės nuosavybės teisių išsėmimas. Europos Sąjunga pasirinkusi regioninį intelektinės nuosavybės teisių išsėmimą. Prekių ženklais yra pažymėtos dauguma prekių, todėl prekių ženklo savininko teisių išsėmimas yra labiausiai susijęs su paralelinės prekybos problematika. Prekių ženklų direktyvos 7 straipsnis, nustatantis prekių ženklo savininko teisių išsėmimą, doktrinoje vertinamas kaip vienas kontroversiškiausių Direktyvos straipsnių. ETT Silhouette byloje konstatavo, kad Prekių ženklų direktyvos 7 straipsnis nesuteikia valstybėms narėms galimybės nacionaliniuose įstatymuose nustatyti tarptautinio prekių ženklo savininko teisių išsėmimo. Dėl pasirinkto regioninio prekių ženklo suteikiamų teisių išsėmimo režimo, jo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The principle of exhaustion of intellectual property rights is an institute of intellectual property law closely related to international trade and the principle of free movement of goods. This principle causes not only legal but also important economic consequences. There are three types of the principle of exhaustion - national, regional and international exhaustion of intellectual property rights. In the European Union law a regional exhaustion was established by a whole series of decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The main purpose of the exhaustion rule is to prevent intellectual property owners from using their exclusive rights in order to partition the market, to safeguard the balance between the protection of intellectual property rights and the principle of free movement of goods in the Community. The application of the exhaustion rule determines that once goods protected by any right of intellectual property are placed on the market by or with the consent of the right-owner, the right to control further distribution of these goods are exhausted. Trade marks are of fundamental importance in the market. Exhaustion of trade mark rights is an issue most related to the problematic of parallel trade. The Article 7 of the Trade mark Directive, which establishes the exhaustion of trade mark rights, is one of the most controversial articles of this Directive. It was concluded in Silhouette case that Article 7 of the Trade Mark Directive precluded Member States... [to full text]

Nesąžiningos konkurencijos pagrindai buvo įtvirtinti 1883 m. Paryžiaus konvencijoje dėl pramoninės nuosavybės apsaugos. Šia konvencija apsaugos nuo nesąžiningos konkurencijos institutas ne tik, kad buvo priskirtas prie pramoninės nuosavybės objektų, bet taip ir joje numatyti pavyzdiniai nesąžiningos konkurencijos veiksmai buvo glaudžiai susiję su intelektinės nuosavybės teise. Siekiant užtikrinti plačią apsaugą intelektinės nuosavybės objektų, pavyzdžiui, prekių ženklų, dizaino, geografinių nuorodų, išradimų, savininkams teisiniu reglamentavimu yra suteikiamos plačios teisės. Dėl to galimybės pasinaudoti intelektinės nuosavybės teisės suteikiama apsauga tam tikra dalimi sutampa su ta, kuri yra suteikiama nesąžiningos konkurencijos teisės, pavyzdžiui, prekių ženklams su reputacija suteikiama apsauga. Visgi, šios teisės šakos, turėdamos skirtingus apsaugos tikslus, t.y. intelektinės nuosavybės teisė – saugoti nuosavybę nuo pažeidimų, o nesąžiningos konkurencijos teisė – užtikrinti konkurencijos sąlygomis veikiančių subjektų apsaugą gintis nuo nesąžiningų kitų subjektų veiksmų, nėra tapačios. Todėl tiek viena, tiek kita suteikia apsaugą tais atvejais, kai viena kuri nors iš jų jos negarantuoja. Taip apsauga nuo nesąžiningos konkurencijos papildo intelektinės nuosavybės teisės suteikiamą apsaugą. Nors nesąžininga konkurencija gali pasireikšti visų intelektinės nuosavybės objektų atžvilgiu, magistro darbe buvo analizuojamas pramoninės nuosavybės objektų ir apsaugos nuo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / At first grounds for protection against unfair competition were established in Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. The latter not only includes protection against unfair competition under industrial property rights, but also provides the examples of three cases of unfair competition which closely relates to the intellectual property law. In order to ensure the broad protection to the owners of the objects of intellectual property, e.g. trade marks, design, geographical indications, inventions, a variety of rights are provided by the legal regulation. Therefore the protection granted by intellectual property law, especially the trademark law, overlaps with the protection against unfair competition. However, taking into account the different goals, pursued by intellectual property law and unfair competition law, respectively the protection of property and the guarantee of the protection for the subjects acting in the situation of competition againt unfair acts of the others, it has to be stated that intellectual property law and unfair competition law are not identical. Accordingly, both of them establish the protection in those cases where only one of them is applicable. Thus protection against unfair competition supplements the protection under intellectual property law. Although unfair competition may occur in respect to all of the objects of intellectual property, only the relationship between the objects of industrial property and the protection of... [to full text]

Baigiamojo magistro darbo tema - „Intelektinės nuosavybės teisių muitinis užtikrinimas“. Darbe keliama problema – intelektinės nuosavybės teisės pažeidimų skaičiaus augimas. Pastebėtina, jog, esant prastai ekonominei padėčiai, intelektinės nuosavybės teisių pažeidėjai pradėjo klastoti ne tik prabangos prekes. Patekusios į rinką klastotos prekės gali pakenkti vartotojui. Tačiau esant blogai ekonominei padėčiai, valstybės institucijoms gaunant mažesnį finansavimą nei įprastai, gali iškilti šių teisių užtikrinimo problema. Darbe keliama hipotezė: Didėjant Lietuvos muitinės veiklos efektyvumui ginant intelektinės nuosavybės teises bei stiprinant kovą prieš klastojimą ir piratavimą, nėra pasiekiamas laukiamas ekonominis efektas. Darbo tikslas: atskleisti intelektinės nuosavybės teisių muitinio užtikrinimo savitumus ir pateikti pasiūlymus dėl veiklos ekonominio efektyvinimo. Darbo uždaviniai: apibūdinti intelektinės nuosavybės svarbą tarptautinėje prekyboje; Išanalizuoti intelektinės nuosavybės apsaugos teisės aktus tarptautiniu ir nacionaliniu lygmeniu bei apžvelgti institucijas, atsakingas už jos įgyvendinimą; apžvelgti muitinės priežiūros priemones, taikomas intelektinės nuosavybės teisių apsaugos srityje; atlikti intelektinės nuosavybės teisių muitinio užtikrinimo Lietuvoje analizę; atliktos analizės pagrindu suformuoti išvadas ir pasiūlymus. pateikti intelektinės nuosavybės teisių muitinio užtikrinimo perspektyvas . Magistro baigiamąjį darbą sudaro keturios dalys:... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In order the subjects of intellectual property could participate actively in the international trade, and seeking to avoid unfair competence, their rights must be protected. To this purpose international organizations have been established and a number of international conventions have been signed. Customs plays a very important role while protecting the property that participates in the international trade. The topic of the final master’s thesis is “Customs Protection of Intellectual Property Rights”. The problem raised in the thesis is the increment in number of violation of intellectual property right. It should be noted that in the presence of depressed economic situation the violators of intellectual property rights started falsifying not only luxury goods. Falsified goods, which enter the market, may make harm to the consumers. However, in the presence of depressed economic situation and when national authorities receive lower financing than usually, there may arise a problem of intellectual property rights protection. The thesis has raised hypothesis: While the activity effectiveness of Lithuanian customs is increasing, having protection the rights of intellectual ownership and strengthening the high against falsification and piracy, the expected economic effect is not achieved. The aim of the thesis is to reveal how effectively and economically the Customs of the Republic of Lithuania protects intellectual property rights. The objectives of the thesis are as... [to full text]

Au cours de la dernière décennie, la pharmacogénomique est devenue le mantra révolutionnaire de nombreux chercheurs et de certains porte-paroles de l'industrie. L'intérêt que porteront les compagnies bio-pharmaceutiques du secteur privé à la recherche et au développement de nouveaux médicaments pharmacogénomiques sera déterminé par la facilité à obtenir du financement et les perspectives de retombées économiques. Dans cette perspective, le droit de la propriété intellectuelle (plus spécifiquement le droit des brevets) a toujours été l'instrument de prédilection pour motiver la recherche et le développement des produits pharmaceutiques. Cependant, l'extension de ce droit au domaine de la pharmacogénomique est controversé. Cette étude évalue l'applicabilité du système international des brevets au domaine de la pharmacogénomique. Suite à une analyse comparative du droit et des principaux textes normatifs, applicables aux brevets pharmaceutiques et biotechnologiques, ainsi qu'à une revue de la doctrine, l'étude soutient que le système de brevets reste une solution viable pour encourager la recherche et le développement dans le domaine de la pharmacogénomique. Cependant, certains ajustements sont nécessaires pour empêcher que des brevets trop larges, ayant des fondements juridiques douteux, ne soient octroyés sur des nouveaux tests de diagnostic pharmacogénomiques et sur des nouveaux outils de diagnostic pharmacogénomiques, ce qui serait néfaste à la recherche et limiterait l'accès aux soins de santé. Plusieurs stratégies sont proposées pour promouvoir un système de brevets applicable au domaine des biotechnologies qui, tout en donnant la motivation nécessaire aux inventeurs et à l'industrie, protégerait nos valeurs humaines fondamentales. / In the last decade, pharmacogenomics has become the "revolution" mantra for numerous researchers and industry representatives. The research interest of the industry for pharmacogenomics will be determined by financing possibilities and prospective economic benefits. In this perspective, the intellectual property system (more specifically patents), has always been the privileged tool to motivate research and development of pharmaceutical products. However, its application to pharmacogenomics is controversial. This study evaluates the applicability of the international patent system to the area of pharmacogenomics. A comparative review and analysis of international laws and guidelines applicable to biotechnology and pharmaceutical patents as well as a review of the literature was carried out. Our study found that the patent system remains a viable solution to promote research and development of pharmacogenomics. However, some adjustments are needed to ensure that overbroad patent having a weak legal basis are not granted on both new pharmacogenomic research tools and diagnostic tests since this could be detrimental to research and limit access to healthcare. Strategies are suggested to promote a patent system, applicable to the field of biotechnology, that will give the necessary incentive to inventors and industry while protecting our fundamental human values. / "Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maîtrise en droit (LL.M.) Option droit, Biotechnologies et société" / Texte du mémoire également publié dans Lex Electronica, vol. 10 n°2 (Été/Automne 2005)

In the past decade, we have seen a resurgence of patent pools. These pools have emerged in our high-tech world to overcome a number of transaction costs involved in assembling patents necessary for the creation of new technologies. While patent pools can be pro-competitive; they can also present a number of anti-competitive features, such as sheltering collusion and eliminating competition between rival firms. This has been said to explain the enormous swings in the analytical approach of enforcement agencies with respect to patent pools. The introduction of the Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property by American competition authorities marked an important shift in patent pool enforcement, reflecting the view that intellectual property and competition law are actually complementary, both seeking to enhance innovation as well as competition. Based on these Guidelines, enforcement agencies' identified potential problems and have offered a number of guiding principles and recommendations - in the form of Business Review Letters - to help pooling parties avoid running afoul of competition law. A review of some of these guidelines reveals that following them indiscriminately, without regard to the particular circumstances, can in fact have a negative impact on innovation and industry. Four areas where a clarification and refinement of policy are necessary are highlighted; namely, the essentiality doctrine, pool, independent licensing and grantback clauses. We maintain that guidance from the competition authorities is too rigid, and that a more carefully tailored approach is necessary to achieve an optimal outcome in both competition and innovation. / Au cours de la dernière décennie, nous observons une renaissance de l'institution des communautés de brevets (patent pools), constitués pour surmonter les coûts afférents a la réunion des brevets nécessaires pour la création des nouvelles technologies. Bien que ces communautés de brevets en général favorisent la concurrence, elles peuvent aussi avoir des effets anti-concurrentiels, entre autre, en permettant la collusion et l'élimination de la concurrence entre compagnies rivales. On a dit que ceci explique les étonnantes oscillations dans l'approche analytique qu'ont adoptée les organismes d'application à l'égard des communautés de brevets. L'introduction des Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property par les autorités de la concurrence américaines marque un point tournant dans l'analyse des communautés de brevets, reflétant le fait que les lois de la propriété intellectuelle et celles de la concurrence sont, en réalité, complémentaires en ce qu'elles tendent toutes les deux à améliorer l'innovation et la concurrence. Se basant sur ces lignes directrices, les agences ont identifié les problèmes potentieis et ont offert un certain nombre de directives et de recommandations sous forme de lettres de revue (Business Review Letters) pour aider ceux qui entendent constituer des communautés de brevets à éviter d'enfreindre la Loi. Toutefois, une révision de certaines de ces lignes directrices démontre que, suivies d'une façon inconsiderées, sans égard aux circonstances particulières, elles peuvent avoir un impact négatif sur l'innovation et l'industrie. Quatre sections ont été mises en évidence où les règles doivent être clarifiées et nuancées, à savoir la doctrine de l'essentialité, les droits d'exclusivité, les services indépendants délivrant les licences et les clauses de rétrocession. Nous soutenons que les règles adoptées par les autorités de la concurrence sont trop rigides et qu'une approche plus nuancée est nécessaire pour atteindre un résultat optimal, à la fois pour la concurrence et pour l'innovation. / "Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de maîtrise en droit, option recherche"