Innovation Without Patents: Harnessing the Creative Spirit in a Diverse World

This book is concerned with the extent to which innovations should or should not be protected as intellectual property, and the implications this has upon the ability of local manufacturers to learn to innovate. A question the book considers is how far legal protection should extend to inventions that may only just, or indeed not quite, meet the conventional criteria for patentability, in terms of the level of inventiveness. Innovation without Patents offers a thoughtful and empirically rich analysis of the current system in a number of developed and developing countries in the Asia-Pacific. It asks whether such innovations should remain free from patenting, or whether alternative intellectual property regimes should be offered in such cases, and indeed whether the requirements change depending on a country's level of development. This discussion is capped by a number of proposed policy options. The theoretical and practical approaches to intellectual property rights, innovation and development policy formulation make Innovation without Patents accessible to academics, national and regional patent offices, national overseas development agencies, NGOs and patent attorneys.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Foreword PART I: INNOVATION, DEVELOPMENT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 1. Innovation and Development Graham Dutfield and Uma Suthersanen 2. Innovation and the Law of Intellectual Property Uma Suthersanen and Graham Dutfield 3. Utility Models and Other Alternatives to Patents Uma Suthersanen and Graham Dutfield 4. Policy Considerations for Governments Uma Suthersanen and Graham Dutfield PART II: HARNESSING MINOR INNOVATION: NATIONAL STUDIES 5. Singapore Kit Boey Chow, Kah Mun Leo and Susanna Leong 6. Australia Andrew Christie and Sarah Moritz 7. Japan and South Korea Graham Dutfield and Uma Suthersanen 8. China and Taiwan Kit Boey Chow, Kah Mun Leo, Susanna Leong with Jerry Hsiao 9. The ASEAN States Uma Suthersanen with Lim Heng Gee 10. Utility Models in Latin America Manuel Marquez PART III: DIVERSE PATHS TO AN INNOVATIVE FUTURE 11. Conclusions and Recommendations Uma Suthersanen and Graham Dutfield Index

About the Author :
Edited by Uma Suthersanen, Professor in International Intellectual Property Law, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, UK, Graham Dutfield, Professor of International Governance, School of Law, University of Leeds, UK and Kit Boey Chow, formerly of Singapore IP Academy, Singapore

Review :
'Clearly written in an accessible style, this book brings together economic thinking on innovation and legal thinking on unpatentable invention and sets them in the context of the legal systems in countries in various parts of the world. Its great merit is the emphasis on empirical and institutional analysis of theory and practice. It should inform IP policy-making everywhere.' - Ruth Towse, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands 'This book asks whether or not protecting unpatentable innovation is a good idea, especially for developing countries. Edited by well-known specialists from the Queen Mary IP institute and the Singapore IP Academy, who have included their own substantial contributions, the work contains a number of valuable empirical studies by national experts mainly from the Far East and Latin America on the operation of national utility model and other similar schemes designed to protect innovation outside the patent system. The book is essential reading for lawyers, economists, policy makers and NGOs concerned with how best to encourage national and regional innovation and economic prosperity.' - David Vaver, University of Oxford, UK 'Focusing on innovation and development, this book, easy to read and full of interesting detail, provides both valuable insight into the theoretical framework of innovation as supported by intellectual property protection and contains valuable case studies of national systems of innovation in the Pacific Rim States.' - Thomas Dreier, University of Karlsruhe, Germany