O’Connor, Sean M. --- "The Central Role of Law as a Meta Method in Creativity and Entrepreneurship" [2011] ELECD 430; in Ghosh, Shubha; Malloy, Paul Robin (eds), "Creativity, Law and Entrepreneurship" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Creativity, Law and Entrepreneurship

Editor(s): Ghosh, Shubha; Malloy, Paul Robin

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848449879

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: The Central Role of Law as a Meta Method in Creativity and Entrepreneurship

Author(s): O’Connor, Sean M.

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

6. The central role of law as a
meta method in creativity and
entrepreneurship
Sean M. O'Connor

INTRODUCTION

A core theme of traditional intellectual property (IP) law, policy and
scholarship is a focus on the role of IP as an incentive for the creation of
inventions and artistic works. However, this story has never made much
sense as many scientists, technologists, artists and artisans create for pur-
poses other than the IP rights they may receive. But it also belies an unfor-
tunate fixation on artifacts as the locus of human ingenuity. This chapter
proposes that instead it is the methods of innovation that are the true locus
of human progress.
From an historical perspective, one finds that the scientific revolution
was a revolution in methods of inquiry, just as the Renaissance was a revo-
lution in methods of artistic and artisanal activities. In fact, these overlap-
ping pivotal developments in western history now seem to be largely the
result of a fruitful cross-pollination of methods from different fields (art
utilizing developments in math and science and vice versa). The innova-
tion did not stop with methods of direct production of artistic, artisanal,
scientific or technological works however. Perhaps most important from
a long term perspective, the revolution in methods of the Renaissance and
Early Modern periods also generated `meta methods' to create a support-
ive infrastructure not only for the creation of these kinds of new works
and artifacts, but also for the successful development and dissemination/
...