By Leslee Friedman, Intellectual Property Watch

There is a familiar, unattributed quote that goes, “there are no new stories, only different ways of telling them.” In the world of intellectual property, this is a foundational concept, central to the ideal balance of IP rights and freedom of expression.

Experts spent last week at the World Intellectual Property Organization tackling just this issue, among others, in drafting an instrument of protection for traditional cultural expressions. Questions about the meanings of “derivative” or “adapted,” about when such derivation or adaptation makes a work an infringement, or when it adds to a living traditional cultural expression, or creates something entirely new arose repeatedly in the process.

At the same time, the United States awaits answers to similar questions in the arena of published fiction. In April of this year, the Second Circuit overturned an injunctive ruling against a piece of writing relying heavily on the text Catcher in the Rye. In Salinger v. Colting, the court vacated a decision by the lower court granting injunction and remanded it to the lower court, with an order that Colting’s fiction be considered under each of the four prongs in the US Supreme Court’s eBay Inc. v. MercExchange LLC standard, previously applied only in patent cases. The test as stated in that case is as follows:

Issuance of injunctive relief against [the defendants] is governed by traditional equitable principles, which require consideration of (i) whether the plaintiff would face irreparable injury if the injunction did not issue, (ii) whether the plaintiff has an adequate remedy at law, (iii) whether granting the injunction is in the public interest, and (iv) whether the balance of the hardships tips in the plaintiff’s favor.

Read more: US Second Circuit Decision Opens Questions Of Transformative And Fair Use

300 Years of Copyright: From Statute of Anne to Digital Copyright 2010
Second International Conference on Content Industries and Intellectual Property
Second Forum of the Sino-Australian Intellectual Property Research Collaboration

 5 + 6 November 2010East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai, China
An initiative of the ECUPL-QUT Sino-Australian Intellectual Property Research Collaboration + the National Institute for Digital Copyright Research
Convenors: Prof Brian Fitzgerald (QUT) + Prof Gao Fuping (ECUPL) + Prof Zhang Ping (Peking University)

East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL), Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the National Institute for Digital Copyright Research are pleased to announce the Second International Conference on Content Industries and Intellectual Property, hosted by the Intellectual Property School of ECUPL and the Intellectual Property School of Peking University, to be held at ECUPL in Shanghai, China, from 5 to 6 November 2010.

2010 marks the 300th anniversary of the Statute of Anne (UK, 1709) which is widely regarded as the template for modern copyright law. It is also the 20th anniversary of Copyright Law of China. This provides a unique opportunity to investigate and examine the historical development and future role of copyright law especially in the context of the challenges and opportunities raised by the emergent networked information society.

Attachments:

CIIP 2010 - Conferecne Brochure

Read more: 300 Years of Copyright: From Statute of Anne to Digital Copyright 2010