Book Review: Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law

AuthorKatja Weckström
PositionUEF Law School
Pages203-205
JICLT
Journal of International Comm ercial Law and Technology
Vol. 9, No.3 (2014)
203
Book Title: Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law
Sixth Edition
Editor: David Bainbridge
Year of Publication: January,2014
Price: £ 130.00
ISBN: 978 1 84766 712 0
Format: Paperback
Availability: In print
ISBN: 978 1 78043 124 6
Book Review: Information Technology and Intellectual
Property Law
Katja Weckström
UEF Law School
Katya Weckström"@utu.fi
This book has evolved with the rise of information technology from focusing on exclusive rights in computer
software to covering the numerous p oints of intersection between intellectual property law (IP) and
information technology (IT). This results in a highly informative package that transcends traditional divides,
and instead seeks to map the i ssues from the perspective of reaching practical solutions to the constant and
pressing need for more information about information technology law. As the extensive Table of Cases ( 20
pages) reflects the book references UK, EU and international cases both fr om other nations and international
organizations. The alphabetically organized TBC could perhaps have distinguished the cases based on
jurisdiction, but the author has made reference to jurisdiction in the text. As undoubtedly, the author has been
the go-to-guy on all IT/IP matters for quite some time, the topics included follow technological and legal
trends in a way that may perhaps seem random from a non-computer software perspective. The book reflects
the author’s growth process and ever broadening expertise which corresponds with the developments in the
information society over the last two decades. It approaches the IT/IP intersection as follows:
“This book is c oncerned with the interaction between information technology and
intellectual property law. Central to this is computer software, widely defined, i ts
protection by i ntellectual property laws and how its availability and dissemination on the
internet, websites and social media may have i mplications for both intellectual property
laws and other areas of law such as competition law and rules on jurisdiction. Information
technology has other legal consequences and may be relevant to computer misuse offences,
license agreements, privacy and data protection and defamation. It is however, intellectual
property laws with which this book is primarily concerned and how these laws appl y in
relation to information technology. These laws include copyright and related rights, design
laws, patent law, trademarks and the law of passing off, and malicious falsehood.”
Chapter 1 is useful in understanding how the author links these fields together. It is a novel way of
connecting the fields, which seems logical from the p erspective of a l awyer practicing in a field, where most
issues are unsettled and in some way challenging existing n ormative frameworks. Perhaps in an effort to be
brief there is some layman use of specific legal concepts (e.g. patents as monopolies), but overall, the chapter
is essential to understanding how t he IP/IT field of law has e volved in the first place. The issue is no l onger
merely protecting single computer programs that form a specific function, but regulation of a whole new

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