"Foreword" [2007] ELECD 130; in Suthersanen, Uma; Dutfield, Graham; Chow, Boey Kit (eds), "Innovation Without Patents" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Innovation Without Patents

Editor(s): Suthersanen, Uma; Dutfield, Graham; Chow, Boey Kit

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845429591

Section Title: Foreword

Number of pages: 1

Extract:

Foreword

`Innovation patents' in Australia, `petty patents' in Indonesia and Thailand,
`utility models' in Cambodia, China and the Philippines, `new utility models'
in Taiwan, `utility innovations' in Malaysia, `utility solutions' in Vietnam. And
that is only the patent-like protection given to minor innovations; in addition,
around the globe there are widely differing systems providing protection against
`unfair' copying.
When there are so many different ways of describing what is supposed to be
the same intellectual property righty, it indicates surely that this is a difficult
and controversial area of the law. So, in July 2004 Professor Gerald Dworkin,
my predecessor as Director of the IP Academy Singapore, decided that this
would be an interesting topic for the newly-created Academy to commission an
international and comparative study.
In turn, to lead the project Professor Dworkin looked to his former colleague
at Queen Mary College in London, Dr Uma Suthersanen, who is not only a
native Singaporean but also a world-renowned expert of design laws.
Dr Suthersanen has pulled together an outstanding team of fellow experts
from her College (Graham Dutfield), from Singapore (Kit Boey Chow, Kah
Mun Leo and Susanna Leong), from Australia (Andrew Christie and Sarah
Moritz), from Taiwan (Jerry Hsiao) from Malaysia (Lim Heng Gee) and Mexico
(Manuel Marquez).
The resulting book is a fascinating comparative insight into the different ways
that countries have tried to tackle the issues both of minor inventions falling
below the standard required by patent law and of `free riding' on ...