The Handbook of Intellectual Property (IP) Research brings together contributors who recognise that IP rights law is no longer siloed within the law discipline. Stressing the importance of evidence to support IP law policy, the aim of the Handbook is to provide “a comprehensive overview of the methods and approaches that could be used as guidelines to address and develop scholarly research questions related to IP law” (p. 3). Its significance lies in that it represents the largest compilation to date of existing IP research methods and approaches from different lenses and perspectives with 52 chapters running to 876 pages.
Jointly edited by Irene Calboli and Maria Lillà Montagnani, the extensive collection of contributions is an important vehicle for IP law scholars and researchers to share their understanding of the value of IP to society across a myriad of disciplines. This is no easy task given the subject of IP rights law is continually changing and often has an impact on other subject areas. There has never been a time when the legal, economic and political significance of IP rights has been greater. IP laws also vary between countries in the developed and developing world to a lesser or greater extent. Thus, it is no surprise that both comparative and interdisciplinary approaches are important features of the global IP rights law research base and discourse presented in this substantial volume. The international line up of expert contributors present a multitude of ways in which interdisciplinary and comparative IP law research from diverse theoretical perspectives is shaping the contours of IP rights in supporting the creative economy; innovation leading to world-class technologies; and to inform public policy choices.
The four themes embedded in the collection cover Intersections between IP law and other areas of law (Part I); the Humanities (Part II); Social Science (Part III) and Pluralism (Part IV). The chapters selected for each of Parts I to IV of the collection sit well within the overarching themes. While all chapters in the volume are valuable contributions, rigorously researched and written, in this review I will focus on those chapters that captured my personal interest in terms of originality and uniqueness or offered a fresh take on IP scholarship on comparative and interdisciplinary approaches.
Irene Calboli, in Chapter 3, “Comparative Legal Analysis and IP Law: A Guide for Research”, quite rightly states that “Although several generations of IP scholars have engaged in comparative legal analysis as part of their research agenda for many decades, a limited number of contributions can be found addressing the role of comparative law in IP research” in this area (p. 46). Her intriguing observations include the long-standing history of comparative IP law research which she explains began with the adoption of the 1883 Paris Convention for the Protection of Intellectual Property and the 1886 Berne Convention and subsequent transmission into national law in the UK, the EU and further afield. Helpfully, Calboli provides further examples for IP scholars to consider, directly related to her own comparative law research journey. This began with a comparison of Italian and UK law, followed by US and EU law; most recently, she expanded her comparative law research to the Asia-Pacific region, focussing on the issues of IP exhaustion and parallel imports. In addition, Calboli shares her approach to structuring edited IP law collections referring to her earlier work, Cambridge Handbook of International and Comparative Trademark Law (Cambridge 2020), edited with American academic Jane Ginsburg. The chapter offers a new vision for comparative IP law scholarship, one that extends to publishing for a global audience with a view to opening up diverse social, cultural, economic and political perspectives.
Chapter 11, “A Research Framework for Intellectual Property and Environmental Law”, by Joshua Sarnoff, is a highly interesting work given the rise of up-to-the-minute topics, such as climate change, net zero carbon emissions and sustainability, all of which have a planetary and environmental dimension. The author explores interdisciplinary research at the intersection of the broad legal frameworks of IP and environmental law. The term “interdisciplinary” may be understood in different ways; it is used here to refer to the full spectrum of interdisciplinary activity including cross-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work. Sarnoff suggests that the first step in carrying out interdisciplinary research is defining a suitably narrow value-driven research topic so that reaching a rational solution is more likely. He proceeds to highlight the common features and synergies that emerge from the two disciplines of IP and environmental law. The reader is invited to consider the most basic question in patent law from an environmental lens – which types of technological innovation should be considered inventions and thus private property? His chapter is highly theoretical in its approach to the evaluation of choice of IP/environmental law research methodology. Addressing legal theory is valuable as there is a certain morality to any legal theory which can empower researchers to consider what is occurring in the physical environment, beyond the courts, to create strategies to improve the IP law system.
Part II, “Intersections between Intellectual Property Law and the Humanities”, presents a fascinating selection of chapters across the board. Chapter 15, “Intellectual Property Law and Geography” by Marketa Trimble is noteworthy. I was expecting to read all about copyright and maps. I soon found, to quote the author, “Geography is much more than the study of maps” (p. 247). Trimble introduces national IP law legislation and proceeds, as a counterpoint, to discuss cyberlaw IP issues arising due to the lack of national borders. Another example in this research prism involves IP law and antitrust law (competition law) relating to market power in changing geographies of markets. Finally, and perhaps more obviously connected to IP law, is the topic of geographical indications that assist to propel local and rural economic and cultural development. This chapter demonstrates an important advance in the reach of interdisciplinary IP research, which is essential when facing modern issues involving geography, borders and the Earth.
In a similar vein, Chapter 20, “Intellectual Property and Archaeology: Research Concerns and Considerations”, by George Nicholas and Catherine Bell, examines IP rights in the context of the material culture of human societies, past and present. The authors reflect on the challenges of Indigenous communities whose heritage is the mainstay of archaeological study. The authors explore the question “Who owns the past?” through a discussion of the concepts of heritage and the blurring of tangible and intangible personal property such as traditional knowledge in some Indigenous communities. The discussion of “communities” extends beyond the Global South. The authors shed light on the consequences that flow from the legal IP rights in new technologies such as 3D scanning and printing of artefacts and human remains, genetic information and remote sensing. These examples are critically evaluated to facilitate informed best practice when encountering and navigating IP rights in archaeology research.
Chapter 22, “Intellectual Property and Linguistics”, by Alan Durant and Jennifer Davis, introduces the growing field of language and law. IP law is a law of words. The content is organised under three banners where language and terminology issues intersect with IP law, namely: (1) where language is the object of a dispute in trade mark and copyright legal proceedings involving property rights in a sign or text; (2) metalanguage to define the characteristics of IP terms such as a “descriptive” trade mark or a “substantial” part of a copyright work; and (3) “overarching” IP terminology that has evolved in response to wider debates in science, industry and the arts. As a whole, the authors illuminate the pivotal role that language and linguistics play in the functioning of the IP law system, highlighting the many ways in which litigation and justice must critically engage with language which is dynamic, continually emerging and transforming our understanding of the scope of IP rights.
Part III, “Intersections between Intellectual Property Law and (Social) Science”, includes Chapter 33, “Survival Analysis in Intellectual Property Research”, by Alan C. Marco ad Saurabh Vishnubhakat. Survival analysis is a powerful quantitative method used to evaluate the duration of time between events. To date this research methodology, involving statistical models has been more prominent in public health and economics, although it can be applied in diverse settings. Here, the authors apply it to IP-related events such as litigation and termination of disputes. The authors explain that the methodology can be used to study when and why an IP dispute may be terminated, how the likelihood of being terminated changes over time and how this event may relate to neighbouring IP disputes. The authors believe that this type of research is increasingly relevant due to the close practical relationship between dispute duration, legal costs and access to justice. They suggest that other aspects of IP law that may benefit from survival analysis include maintenance and renewal costs of registered rights such as patents, trademarks and designs to determine strategic value, and the long-standing issue of patent backlogs. Although survival analysis is likely beyond the expertise of typical IP law experts, research collaborations with survival analysis experts could prove to be beneficial in providing the evidence-based work sought by policy-makers to effect sensible change.
Chapter 35, “The Psychology of Intellectual Property”, by Gregory Mandel, examines the effect of human cognition, behaviour, heuristics and biases on IP rights law. He initially notes the example of the behaviour of creators and users in a copyright context to address unauthorised copying. He next proceeds to dissect the hindsight bias that arises in patent law when assessing the non-obvious validity standard. In relation to the latter, Mandel notes that the judiciary in certain jurisdictions have developed a number of different approaches to combat such bias. Beyond special instruction to juries, it would have been interesting to learn more. In his previous work, Mandel conducted studies which he suggests indicates significant limitations on human ability to judge creativity in hindsight. Mandel then turns to incentive and reward theory of IP rights law as applied to creation and commercialisation of creative works, identifying various hurdles in this type of behavioural research. Finally, Mandel considers the psychology of apparently misconceived American attitudes towards intangible property rights ownership, largely viewed as means to prevent plagiarism (the “plagiarism fallacy”) and attribute authorship, rather than to incentivise creation. He contrasts this with his research findings in relation to the Chinese public. His conclusions show that at least in the US and the People's Republic of China, the public's awareness of the role of the IP system diverges significantly from the manner in which the IP system is actually designed.
Reviewing a substantial edited collection presents different challenges to reviewing a research monograph. The prospect of making insightful critical commentary on all 52 chapter contributions was not feasible and to do the volume justice was daunting. I hope readers and authors will accept that I was unable to comment on each of the 52 chapters individually. I selected chapters that offered something new to me personally as an IP scholar, with which I could engage and advance my own understanding of comparative and interdisciplinary research in the IP rights law field. These included topics rarely connected to IP law scholarship, including environmental law, geography, archaeology, linguistics, survival analysis and psychology. In my view, the relatively narrow selection of chapters showcased demonstrates the collection's strengths. Other reviewers will no doubt have selected differently. A minor point is that each chapter would benefit from an abstract.
Importantly, the Handbook highlights the degree to which interdisciplinary questions are being recognised as central to IP creators, owners, practitioners and users in increasingly diverse policy areas reliant on evidence-based research. The answers, however, to comparative and interdisciplinary problems with an IP dimension are still emerging. The Handbook of Intellectual Property Research will nurture the enthusiasm and research skills of IP scholars whose activities aim to stimulate and extend debate about the role and value of IP rights protection and ownership across an ever-expanding canvas of traditional and modern academic disciplines. Through the real-world examples in interdisciplinary IP research culture, the Handbook opens interesting avenues to enhance IP policy outcomes and is indeed a “call to action” to IP researchers around the globe.
