Lea, Gary --- "Intellectual Property Rights as Strategic Weapon: Domestic and International Trade Considerations" [2007] ELECD 279; in Westkamp, Guido (ed), "Emerging Issues in Intellectual Property" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Emerging Issues in Intellectual Property

Editor(s): Westkamp, Guido

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845427757

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Intellectual Property Rights as Strategic Weapon: Domestic and International Trade Considerations

Author(s): Lea, Gary

Number of pages: 12

Extract:

10. Intellectual property rights as
strategic weapon: Domestic and
international trade considerations
Gary Lea

INTRODUCTION
In the past, some Intellectual Property (IP) academics, most definitely includ-
ing this author, were often guilty of ignoring uses and abuses of Intellectual
Property Rights (IPRs) in the marketplace; they could tell you about subject
matter, thresholds of protection and the like ­ perhaps even discuss supralim-
inal issues in antitrust, contract or human rights ­ but they were often bliss-
fully unaware of what commerce and industry was up to with these rights on
a day-to-day basis once they got hold of them. This situation has changed
considerably over the last decade but the process of enlightenment is as yet
incomplete.
In August 2002, a Workshop was held by the Centre for Competition and
Consumer Policy at the Australian National University, Canberra Australia; I
had the great good fortune to attend this meeting and to listen to a paper called
`When Means Become Ends: Considering the Impact of Patent Strategy on
Innovation' by Stuart Macdonald of the Management School at the University
of Sheffield. The managerial practices and philosophies that Macdonald's
paper revealed filled in many gaps for me and this chapter, accordingly, refers
closely to it whilst, it is hoped, providing some additional food for thought
from the lawyer's perspective.
Much of what is said in this chapter relates to patents but, as we will see, it
is clear that many of the factors affecting the growth, perhaps over-growth, ...