Call for papers: International Intellectual Property Law and the Creative Industries

Call for papers: International Intellectual Property Law and the Creative Industries

A special issue of International Journal of Intellectual Property Management

This special issue will address topics related to the complex and contentious interface between the international intellectual property law and creative industries and aims at broadening the debate on the global dimensions and challenges of the privatisation of public goods, incentives to innovation in industry, and access to knowledge and commons. A primary desirable approach is centered in the critical review of current IP policies and economics relating to creative industries from the perspective of the traditional pillars of the international intellectual property regime shaped by the Berne and Paris Conventions, as well as the enforcement of developmental-related WTO/TRIPS provisions and current trends on the "regionalisation" and "nationalisation" of intellectual property rights protection.

Several factors may be identified in the context of intellectual property and creative industries, varying in approach and magnitude. The emergence of new technologies and advent of internet had substantially changed the ways ‘creative products and services’ are distributed in global markets. Many developing countries are still struggling with WTO/TRIPS standards of intellectual property protection in order to change their domestic practices and institutions and explore all the flexibilities provided by the Agreement. In all those aspects, the exhaustion and consequent obsolescence of certain proprietary models lead to a debate concerning the urgent adjustment of international norms. This seems to point out some specificities of creative industries’ management, since this area has become undisputedly a growing part of the global economy.

One of the main objectives of this special issue is to provide a forum for discussion and presentation of overall issues on intellectual property and creative industries, revisiting traditional institutions and recommending some policy guidelines for helping to resolve some of the contentious issues.

For the successful completion of this issue, we seek critical and policy-oriented contributions from legal, economic and societal perspectives, which address the interface between the international intellectual property legal regime and creative industries’ development. Related issues, such as innovation law, privatisation of common goods and access to knowledge, may also be taken into consideration. Papers may adopt distinct methodologies (e.g. survey of cases, theoretical/doctrinal, empirical or descriptive) and they will be subject to a peer review.

Suggested topics covered by this special issue include, but not limited to, the following:

• Conceptual delimitation of creative industries, interface with intellectual property; international IP sources; comparative legal analysis
• Creativity standards and IP protection - access requirements for protection and creative industries
• Economics of creative industries and intellectual property law
• Creative potential of developing countries, economic aspects of creative activities, trends on the access to 'creative goods'; benefit sharing in creative industries
• Transnational code of principles of technology sharing, open source and interface with creative industries (legal or entrepreneurial aspects)
• Expansion of public domain; competition standards alternatives in the field of creative industries Cross-subsidies and R&D in creative industries; business models and new technologies
• Relation between media and creative industries; effects of copyright protection and expanded protection through bilateral and free trade agreements
• Differences between cultural industries and creative industries - their contours and common fields, such as dissemination of arts (museums and libraries), cultural tourism and heritage, sports and outdoor activities; societal dimensions of cultural industries and non-appropriation of cultural goods by creative industries;
• Survey issues and evidence of the relation between IP protection, incentives or non-incentives and creative industries
• New media and the creative industries; effects of IP protection and competition law
• Key questions related to the balance of interests of rights holders and the public; limitation of time and scope of protection of IP rights and incentives to the dissemination of knowledge and creativity
• Costs of expanding IP protection in developing countries in those cases related to creative industries (e.g. music and arts industries as platforms of diversification of domestic markets, access to global markets, flow of 'creative goods' in international trade, strengthening of cultural solidarity etc)
• Effectiveness of intellectual property protection in indigenous creativity in developing countries (survey issues; appropriation of cultural goods and traditional knowledge within creative industries)

In all those topics, authors should have in mind the several dimensions and approaches related to IP policies and practices at domestic and international level. How are intellectual property rights changing the notions of time and space in cultural diversity and multiculturalism? How are they appropriating cultural goods and insulating them in fields of exclusivity in the so called ‘creative industries’? How are pros and cons of intellectual property protection in the field of creative industries, particularly in respect of copyright and new media?

Important Date
Deadline for submission of first draft of the paper: 28 February, 2008