Publisher's Synopsis
The five essays that form this book explore the conceptual tension between permanence of function and change of structure that has impacted IP since its origins. All five essays are united by a thread. That thread is the function that IP performs and that has always performed, which is IP product differentiation. Societies that live in market-oriented economies have acknowledged, promoted, and protected that function along many centuries, for the sake of commercial rivalry and free entrepreneurship. It is the defense of that freedom, ensured by the diversity of products and services put at the disposal of consumers, that has pushed and continues pushing societies to protect IP.
The general idea behind this book is that, no matter how convoluted the law of IP can be, it evolves in tandem with the hurdles and new perspectives that social change brings to the way producers and merchants engage in carrying an honest living through buying and selling in competition with their commercial rivals.
