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Full-Text Articles in Legal History

Rudolf Callmann And The Misappropriation Doctrine In The Common Law Of Unfair Competition, Christopher Wadlow Jul 2011

Rudolf Callmann And The Misappropriation Doctrine In The Common Law Of Unfair Competition, Christopher Wadlow

Christopher Wadlow

Rudolf Callmann (1892-1976) is a central figure for unfair competition lawyers in both the German civil law and the Anglo-American common law traditions. When he emigrated from Germany to America in the 1930s he was already the author of substantial works on trade marks, unfair competition, and cartel law. In the United States he composed the monumental Callmann on Unfair Competition, Trademarks and Monopolies. This article examines his invocation of the 1918 decision of the Supreme Court in International News Service v Associated Press as the basis for a reformulated common law of unfair competition, eschewing a purely tortious conception …


Intellectual Property As An ‘Investment’ In International Law: A Question Of Access To Medicines Vs Access To Justice, Christopher Wadlow Jan 2011

Intellectual Property As An ‘Investment’ In International Law: A Question Of Access To Medicines Vs Access To Justice, Christopher Wadlow

Christopher Wadlow

No abstract provided.


The Great Pharmaceutical Patent Robbery, And The Curious Case Of The Chemical Foundation, Christopher Wadlow Jan 2010

The Great Pharmaceutical Patent Robbery, And The Curious Case Of The Chemical Foundation, Christopher Wadlow

Christopher Wadlow

In 1918, the United States confiscated virtually all German-owned intellectual property assets within its jurisdiction. Out of 6,000 patents in the chemical field, 4,500 were assigned for a very modest consideration to an newly-established entity, the Chemical Foundation, which was incorporated with the objective of licensing and managing them for the benefit of the United States chemical industry. This article describes the origins and activities of the Chemical Foundation, and considers whether it provides a useful model, or at least useful lessons, for the collective management of patents today.


’Including Trade In Counterfeit Goods’: The Origins Of Trips As A Gatt Anti-Counterfeiting Code, Christopher Wadlow Jan 2007

’Including Trade In Counterfeit Goods’: The Origins Of Trips As A Gatt Anti-Counterfeiting Code, Christopher Wadlow

Christopher Wadlow

Like corruption, commercial counterfeiting has no apologists and no redeeming features. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) TRIPs Agreement incorporates provisions intended to address the problem of counterfeit goods in international trade, but these seem to have achieved little more than to slow the trajectory of its growth. However, the low profile of these provisions within TRIPs disguises the fact that TRIPs itself may ultimately be traced to a modest initiative by American business interests to include an “anti-counterfeiting code” within the GATT Tokyo round. This article describes the origins and history of the code, and its gradual metamorphosis into the …


The British Empire Patent 1901-1923: The ‘Global’ Patent That Never Was, Christopher Wadlow Jan 2006

The British Empire Patent 1901-1923: The ‘Global’ Patent That Never Was, Christopher Wadlow

Christopher Wadlow

Reflects on the lessons which unsuccessful efforts to introduce a British Empire patent prior to 1923 may offer for the European Community patent. Reviews the origin of the proposal in 1901, the state of patent law across the Empire at the time, the progress made at several Imperial conferences, key features of the 1919 memorandum and the issues discussed at the 1922 patent conference. Outlines the reasons for the failure of the 1923 proposals, including the problems created by Canada's claim for reciprocal treatment for its patents, and considers whether the EC Community patent has a greater prospect of success.