"Foreword" [2016] ELECD 1281; in Alemanno, Alberto; Bonadio, Enrico (eds), "The New Intellectual Property of Health" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) xi

Book Title: The New Intellectual Property of Health

Editor(s): Alemanno, Alberto; Bonadio, Enrico

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781784718787

Section Title: Foreword

Number of pages: 4

Extract:

Foreword
I am very pleased to write the foreword to this book edited by Alberto
Alemanno and Enrico Bonadio. They have assembled very interesting
contributions on the intersection between intellectual property (IP) law
and the protection of public health. This has been done in a way that pays
full regard to the role of IP regimes in the modern economy. While
acknowledging in Part 1 and Part 2 of the book that IP protection may
sometimes interfere with public policies aimed at enhancing human
health, it is pointed out that this body of law can also be used as a tool to
promote this objective, as clearly emerges in the last part of the volume.
Can IP be protected as a fundamental right, or as a form of inter-
national investment, if this results in limiting governments' actions aimed
at reducing the known health risks caused by the consumption of
unhealthy products? This and other questions will find interesting
answers in the volume. The red thread which links many chapters is
simply one: packaging. More and more countries have started restricting
the ability of IP owners in several industries (tobacco, alcohol, food,
pharma) to fully use their brands and other eye-catching features on the
packaging.
It remains to be seen whether such restrictions, for example plain
packaging of cigarettes, are compliant with IP regimes and are also
capable of meeting the expectations of public health measures designed
to reduce the appeal of packaging and thereby prompt people not to
...