The economic structure of intellectual property law /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Landes, William M.
Imprint:	Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2003.
Description:	vi, 442 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Intellectual property -- United States. Intellectual property -- Economic aspects. Intellectual property. Intellectual property -- Economic aspects. United States.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/4968877

Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:	Posner, Richard A.
ISBN:	0674012046 9780674012042
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	This book takes a fresh look at the most dynamic area of American law today, comprising the fields of copyright, patent, trademark, trade secrecy, publicity rights, and misappropriation. Topics range from copyright in private letters to defensive patenting of business methods, from moral rights in the visual arts to the banking of trademarks, from the impact of the court of patent appeals to the management of Mickey Mouse. The history and political science of intellectual property law, the challenge of digitization, the many statutes and judge-made doctrines, and the interplay with antitrust principles are all examined. The treatment is both positive (oriented toward understanding the law as it is) and normative (oriented to the reform of the law). Previous analyses have tended to overlook the paradox that expanding intellectual property rights can effectively reduce the amount of new intellectual property by raising the creators' input costs. Those analyses have also failed to integrate the fields of intellectual property law. They have failed as well to integrate intellectual property law with the law of physical property, overlooking the many economic and legal-doctrinal parallels. This book demonstrates the fundamental economic rationality of intellectual property law, but is sympathetic to critics who believe that in recent decades Congress and the courts have gone too far in the creation and protection of intellectual property rights.
Other form:	Online version: Landes, William M. Economic structure of intellectual property law. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2003 Online version: Landes, William M. Economic structure of intellectual property law. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2003
Standard no.:	9780674012042

Review by Choice Review

Private property, and its legal limits and protection, are essential to the functioning of a free enterprise market economy. Private property includes (beside physical property and land) intellectual property, which is protected by patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. The law on each is complemented by the tort right of publicity and the common law of misappropriation (among other rights and laws). Landes (law and economics, Univ. of Chicago) and Posner (lecturer, Univ. of Chicago, and appeals court judge, 7th Circuit), each widely respected in the intersection of law and economics, investigate the right mix of protection and use of intellectual property (IP). They "demonstrate how economics can bring out the deep commonality, as well as the significant differences, among various fields of intellectual property law and the law governing physical property." The economics here makes "coherent" the "complexity" of IP law and also recognizes where the analysis is weak or lacking. Five (of fifteen) chapters are new or largely new; others are substantial revisions and updates of individually or jointly authored pieces. This volume provides a broad and coherent approach to the economics and law of IP. The economics is important, understandable, and valuable. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Professional libraries and academic collections, lower-division undergraduate and up. R. A. Miller Wesleyan University

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The economic structure of intellectual property law /

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