Call for Papers: Special Issue of TDM - The Protection of Intellectual Property Rights through International Investments Agreements - Only a romance or true love?
21 April 2008
The TDM special issue on "The Protection of Intellectual Property Rights through International Investment Agreements". This special issue will analyse the level of protection granted by International Investment Agreements (IIAs) in regard to Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) has been published, see the table of contents here.
IPRs are today recognized as one of the most valuable assets within the international economy. Due to their intangible nature, they require worldwide protection against illegal copying or other forms of unjust exploitation. IPR-holders regularly complain that foreign governments refuse adequately to protect their rights or themselves engage in infringement. Such infringements might appear as acts, e.g., through the granting of compulsory licenses, or as omissions, e.g. in the form of denial of justice against infringements by private parties.
IIAs provide foreign investors with protection against certain forms of interference with investments by the host state. Many IIAs explicitly mention IPRs as one form of protected investment. Unlike other IPR-related international treaties, IIAs typically grant the investor the right to have an alleged breach of the treaty adjudicated through investor-state-arbitration. During the last decade, the number of investor-state-arbitrations has skyrocketed and reshaped the landscape of international investment law.
However, the protection of IPRs through IIAs remains relatively unexplored territory: cases are few and commentaries limited. This special issue of TDM analyses the interaction between IPR law and international investment law and was prepared James Hosking (Chaffetz Lindsey LLP) and Markus Perkams (Clifford Chance).
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