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Professional And Academic Employee Inventions: Looking Beyond The Uk Paradigm, Justine Pila
Professional And Academic Employee Inventions: Looking Beyond The Uk Paradigm, Justine Pila
Justine Pila
The vast majority of inventions are devised by employees, raising the question who is entitled to patent them? Under the UK Patents Act 1977, the right to patent an invention lies primarily with its inventor(s). However, an exception exists for employee inventions to which section 39(1) applies. The recent decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia in UWA v Gray raises the question of the applicability of this provision in the university context, in respect of regular academic employees. In that case, the Court relied on UK authorities to support its conclusion that the University of …
Copyright And Internet Browsing, Justine Pila
Patent Eligibility And Scope Revisited After Schütz V. Werit, Justine Pila
Patent Eligibility And Scope Revisited After Schütz V. Werit, Justine Pila
Justine Pila
This chapter responds to the contribution of Professor Ted Sichelman in the same volume by reconsidering the UK courts’ method of determining patent scope. Using my earlier work regarding the role of eligibility as a determinant of patent scope as the departure point for that reconsideration, I argue that the theory of “patent eligibility scope” proposed in Sichelman’s chapter runs against the grain of UK patent jurisprudence by virtue of its uncertain and open-ended policy nature, and is therefore unlikely to be accepted by the UK courts. On the other hand, recent UK cases such as Schütz v. Werit can …
Intellectual Property Rights And Detached Human Body Parts, Justine Pila
Intellectual Property Rights And Detached Human Body Parts, Justine Pila
Justine Pila
This paper responds to an invitation by the editors to consider whether the intellectual property (IP) regime suggests an appropriate model for protecting interests in detached human body parts. It begins by outlining the extent of existing IP protection for body parts in Europe, and the relevant strengths and weaknesses of the patent system in that regard. It then considers two further species of IP right of less obvious relevance. The first are the statutory rights of ownership conferred by domestic UK law in respect of employee inventions, and the second are the economic and moral rights recognized by European …
An Australian Copyright Revolution And Its Relevance For Uk Jurisprudence: Icetv In The Light Of Infopaq V Danske, Justine Pila
An Australian Copyright Revolution And Its Relevance For Uk Jurisprudence: Icetv In The Light Of Infopaq V Danske, Justine Pila
Justine Pila
The purpose of this paper is to consider the High Court of Australia’s decision in IceTV v Nine Network (2009) and its relevance for UK copyright jurisprudence, taking account of the ECJ's decision in Infopaq v Danske (2009). The starting point for that consideration is the principle expressed by the Court of Appeal in Higgs v R (2008), that UK courts may rely on the reasoning of Australian and other foreign decisions when the logic of those decisions makes them applicable. On its face, IceTV seems an important decision, and a likely source of future reasoning for UK courts. Among …
Who Owns The Intellectual Property Rights In Academic Work?, Justine Pila
Who Owns The Intellectual Property Rights In Academic Work?, Justine Pila
Justine Pila
In this Opinion piece the ownership of intellectual property rights in university teaching and research is considered against the backdrop of British university intellectual property policies and recent cases. Starting from the position of Lord Evershed that it is "just and commonsense" that academics own the copyright in their lectures, and by extension the copyright in their research, I consider the policy arguments for university claims of ownership in respect of such copyright and academic employees' inventions.
Copyright And Its Categories Of Original Works, Justine Pila
Copyright And Its Categories Of Original Works, Justine Pila
Justine Pila
In this paper the categories of original (literary, dramatic, musical and artistic (LDMA)) works in which copyright subsists are considered, and an argument made that the Legislature's division of protected works into categories is appropriate given the psychology of art appreciation, and the fact that in order to perceive a work qua work one must perceive it in relation to a category of work. Nonetheless, an argument is also made that the statutory definitions of LDMA works suffer from the defects of formalist theory. Those defects are outlined, and an alternative theory of works proposed, drawing on the work of …
Works Of Artistic Craftsmanship In The High Court Of Australia: The Exception As Paradigm Copyright Work, Justine Pila
Works Of Artistic Craftsmanship In The High Court Of Australia: The Exception As Paradigm Copyright Work, Justine Pila
Justine Pila
In Burge v Swarbrick, the High Court of Australia delivered an important decision on the most elusive of works protected by copyright: the work of artistic craftsmanship (WAC). Drawing on the history and reasons for that protection, and adopting the analysis of Lord Simon in Hensher, the Court affirmed the orthodox view that such works have 'special status' in law on account of their 'real artistic quality'. In its judgment, whether a work has that quality depends on whether it is a work of craftsmanship the artistic form of expression of which is sufficiently 'unconstrained by functional considerations'. In this …
Authorship And E-Science: Balancing Epistemological Trust And Skepticism In The Digital Environment, Justine Pila
Authorship And E-Science: Balancing Epistemological Trust And Skepticism In The Digital Environment, Justine Pila
Justine Pila
In this article I consider the role of authorship in balancing epistemological trust and skepticism in e-science. Drawing on studies of the diagnostic practices of doctors in British breast care units and the gate-keeping practices of a Californian publisher of (professional and amateur) horticultural works, I suggest that conventions of authorial designation have an important role to play in nurturing the skepticism essential for scientific rigor within the framework of epistemological trust that pragmatism and morality require. In so doing I question the assumption of contemporary scholars that scientific works are determinate in fact, while nonetheless supporting the idea of …
An Intentional View Of The Copyright Work, Justine Pila
An Intentional View Of The Copyright Work, Justine Pila
Justine Pila
The questions at the heart of copyright – what is a work, and the extent of copyright protection – are considered. Arguments are presented firstly for an understanding of works oriented around expressive intent, and secondly for a statutory test of infringement that pays closer attention to issues of policy and the authorial acts that copyright rewards. The article revisits two central cases of modern English copyright law, Walter v Lane and Interlego v Tyco Industries, and suggests that their reasoning is problematic; Walter v Lane because the transcripts of Lord Rosebery's speeches were not books for copyright purposes, and …
Compilation Copyright: A Matter Calling For ‘A Certain ... Sobriety’, Justine Pila
Compilation Copyright: A Matter Calling For ‘A Certain ... Sobriety’, Justine Pila
Justine Pila
In this article I review the UK and Australian law of compilation copyright in the light particularly of the Australian Full Federal Court's decisions in Desktop Marketing Systems (2002) and IceTV (2008). I criticize the Court's approach in those cases to the issues of both subsistence and infringement, while also offering a measured defense of the first instance decision in IceTV. In particular, I suggest that decision is largely right, and reflects an important attempt by a Judge to reorient copyright around its works, and resist the past temptation of courts - including the Full Federal Court itself - to …