Jacques de Werra (ed.), Research Handbook on Intellectual Property Licensing. Edward Elgar 2013, 499 pages, ISBN 978-1-84980-440-0

• Author: Lucie Guibault
• Position: Associate Professor at the Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam
• Pages: 249-252

Book Review

2013

249

3

Book Review: Jacques de Werra (ed.), Research

Handbook on Intellectual Property Licensing

Edward Elgar 2013, 499 pages, ISBN 978-1-84980-440-0

by Lucie Guibault, Associate Professor at the Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam

© 2013 Lucie Guibault

Everybody may disseminate this ar ticle by electroni c means and make it available for downlo ad under the terms and

conditions of the Digita l Peer Publishing Licence (DPPL). A copy of the license text may be obtaine d at http://nbn-resolving.

de/urn:nbn:de:0009-dppl-v3-en8 .

Recommended citation: Lucie Guib ault, Book Review – Jacques de Werr a (ed.), Research Handb ook on Intellectual Property

Licensing, 4 (2013) JIPITEC 3, 249

1

Licensing agreements are the motor behind the

exploitation of any piece of intellectual prop-

erty: without them only few creations and in-

ventions would ever reach the market. Indeed

initial makers are not always in a position to

produce and distribute the fruit of their own

intellectual labour; licenses are the solution to

allow third parties to do so. Apart from exploi-

tation licences, contractual arrangements play

nowadays an increasing role in setting the con-

ditions under which IP protected items can be

used, primarily by the general public accessing

material in the digital environment. Licenses

are essentially a tool in the hands of rights own-

ers to help them exercise their rights. This tool

can be used to achieve multiple (at times, con-

-

vation by subsequent creators to strategically

fending off competitors and everything in-be-

tween that is not contrary to public order.

2 In the laws of most jurisdictions in the world,

IP licenses are an unnamed form of contract,

most often of a hybride nature, for which no

-

ceptions. As a result, the formation, content and

interpretation of IP licences call for the appli-

cation of relevant norms from numerous other

   -

erty law, commercial law, consumer law etc.

Despite efforts of harmonisation at the inter-

national and regional levels, these related areas

of the law remain to a large extent nationally

  

  

appear between common law and civil law sys-

tems. A Research Handbook that highlights the

main policy concerns and doctrinal debates on

the subject of intellectual property licensing is

therefore particularly timely.

3 The book, edited by Jacques de Werra, professor

at the University of Genève, contains nineteen

chapters written by world-renowned scholars

in the area from Europe (Germany, Belgium,

Spain, Switzerland, UK) and abroad (US, China,

India and Japan). The book is divided into three

  

(I), common IP licensing policies (II) and a se-

lection of local IP licensing policies (III). Among



chapters of Part I are copyrights, software (pro-

prietary and open source), factual information

and databases, patents, trade secrets and know-

how, technology transfers and trademarks. Part

II of the book deals with various aspects of in-

tellectual property licensing law which do not

depend on the type of intellectual assets at is-

sue, including licensing issues related to pub-

lic health, a model IP commercial law, IP and

   

and arbitration. As explained in the Preface,