Property rights and externalities: the uneasy case of knowledge

Drawing from Coase’s methodological lesson, this article discusses the specific case of knowledge, which was for a long time chiefly governed by exchange mechanisms lying outside the market, and has only recently been brought into the market. Its recent, heavy “colonization” by the property paradigm has progressively elicited criticism from commentators who, for various reasons, believe that the market can play only a limited role in pursuing efficiency in the knowledge domain. The article agrees with the enounced thesis and tries to provide an explanation of it that relates to the fact that in specific circumstances property-rights can produce distinct market failures that affect the social cost and can consequently prevent attainment of social welfare. In particular, the arguments set forth here concern three distinct externalities that arise when enforcing a property rights system over knowledge. First, the existence of a property right may itself alter individual preferences and social norms, thus causing specific changes in individuals’ behaviour. Second, the idiosyncratic nature of knowledge, as a collective and inherently indivisible entity, means that its full propertization can be expected to produce significant harm. Third, property rights can cause endogenous drifts in the market structure arising from the exclusive power granted to the right holder: though generally intended as a necessary mechanism for extracting a price from the consumer, in the knowledge domain property rights can become a device for extracting rents from the market.     

Intellectual property rights on creativity and heritage: the case of the fashion industry

Recently, as different projects aiming to define and reinforce property rights in the fashion industry have been elaborated and discussed, a lot of papers have been dedicated to the question of property rights in this industry. Our paper considers the problems from a specific point of view; it focuses on the relation between property rights and creativity. If property rights allow the allocation of the majority of standard industrial goods without any special difficulty, however, when they are applied to creative goods, new problems arise. Then, for us, the persistence of a low system of IPRs in the fashion industry does not mainly derive from its efficiency but from the characteristics of the inputs that are used in the creative production process. They constitute strong constraints for defining, entitling, legitimating, enforcing, valuating and exchanging property rights. Thus, the different economic actors develop different kinds of strategic behaviour in order to obtain earnings and can try to protect copyrights, trademarks, new assets, old assets (heritage), private or collective assets, and so on. The institutional characteristics of this specific industry—such as the models of management, the type of ownership, the size of the firms, … lead to different historical models of management through IPRs. Peculiarly, the financial groups that integrate fashion into the new luxury industries currently try to implement new IPRs and to move towards a stronger system of IPRs but the management model of the street fashion puts an obstacle to this project.     

Trade mark protection: the art of styling intellectual property rights

This new commentary on the Austrian trade mark legislation,edited by Professor Guido Kucsko, is remarkable in many respects.First, it is a great achievement to gather together a team ofno less than 40 authors across all aspects of intellectual propertypractice and during a one year ‘tour de force’ puttogether an homogeneous work     

规制知识产权滥用的法理与现实思考

一、何谓“权利滥用”和“知识产权滥用”(一)何谓“权利滥用”在罗马法上,具有深刻的个人主义的法权观念,出现了“行使自己的权利无论对于何人,皆非不法”的法谚。到了近代,由于自然法学派及自由主义、个人主义的兴起,“权利绝对”的思想形成。在法国大革命的《人权宣言》中,有“所有权不可侵犯性”和“财产权的绝对性”     

Personhood,property rights,and the permissibility of abortion

The purpose of this paper is to argue that the tactic of granting a fetus the legal status of a person will not, contrary to the expectations of opponents of abortion, provide grounds for a general prohibition on abortions. I begin by examining two arguments, one moral (J. J. Thomson's ‘A Defense of Abortion’) and the other legal (D. Regan's ‘Rewriting Roe v. Wade’), which grant the assumption that a fetus is a person and yet argue to the conclusion that abortion is permissible. However, both Thomson and Regan rely on the so-called bad samaritan principle. This principle states that a person has a right to refuse to give aid. Their reliance on this principle creates problems, both in the moral and the legal contexts, since the bad samaritan principle is intended to apply to passive refusals to aid; abortion, however, does not look like any such passive denial of aid, and so it does not seem like the sort of action covered by the bad samaritan principle. In defense of the positions outlined by Thomson and Regan, I argue that the apparent asymmetry between abortion and the usual type of case covered by the bad samaritan principle is only apparent and not a genuine problem for their analyses. I conclude with a defense of the morality of the bad samaritan principle.     

Gun violence and police problem solving: A research note examining alternative data sources

This article uses gun seizure data from the gun lab of the St. Louis Police Department to examine a problem-solving approach to seizing illegal firearms. Further, it explores narrative data from the police reports to understand the context surrounding 113 firearms seizure. The most important findings are that most illegal firearms are seized by the police department in the course of routine patrol, and that many seemingly nonviolent technical law violations (e.g., the unlawful carrying, use, or concealment of a firearm) often occur under violent circumstances. Given the paucity of gun research, future studies should use multiple data sources to further explain the gun/crime relationship. These findings are discussed in the context of routine policing.     

物尽其用与矿业权出资入股

判断资源是否得到了合理的配置，需考虑供给与需求的关系。在供给有限的前提下，合理的资源配置决定着人们的需求能够在多大程度上得到满足。不合理的资源配置决策含浪费稀缺资源，降低需要被满足的程度。就矿业权来讲，它在取得时已经发生了大量的成本消耗，再加之资源存在的有限，若将之用于出资，既是封矿藏价值的尊重，又可实现价值利用的最大化。本文试从矿业权物权理论出发，阐述矿业权出资入股符合物尽其用原则的要求。     

An integrated case formulation approach in forensic practice: the contribution of Occupational Therapy to risk assessment and formulation

Forensic services focus on risk reduction and extol the value of multidisciplinary working. Due to the complex relationship of personality disorder and risk, a multidisciplinary approach to risk assessment, formulation, management and reduction is essential. Occupational Therapists provide a unique perspective; however, current literature pertaining to the contribution of Occupational Therapy is negligible. This paper aims to initiate discussion of the value of Occupational Therapy contributions to risk assessment and formulation with personality disordered offenders. A new approach is described that integrates occupational adaptation and multiple sequential functional analysis to provide a structured framework for Occupational Therapy risk assessment and formulation. A single case report is presented to demonstrate the advantages of the approach for identifying offenders’ strengths and difficulties, predicting risk of reoffending, identifying offence paralleling behaviour and informing and evaluating efficacy of intervention, thereby supporting the aims of forensic practice settings to assess, manage, treat and reduce risk.     

知识产权权利冲突及其解决原则

知识产权权利冲突是指同一知识产权客体在某种条件下同时归属于多个主体,它具有多种表现形式,并各有其特定的产生原因.解决这一问题需要依照保护在先权利原则、维护公平竞争原则、权利平衡原则等进行.     

职业知识产权人：知识产权人才培养新模式探析

知识产权已经成为自主创新的目标和主要标志,知识产权人才成为实施国家知识产权战略、建设创新型国家的重要支撑和基础条件之一.适应形势发展需求,构建满足不断增长的人才需求,是当前大学知识产权教学和知识产权人才培育的重要课题之一. "职业知识产权人"概念及其内涵的研究,有助于探索新时期知识产权人才培养新模式.     

Safety demand and supply: An alternative to fear of crime

This review provides an opportunity to assess the current state of gang research and suggest directions for its future. There has been a dramatic increase in research on gangs, gang members, and gang behavior since the early 1990s, making this review especially timely. We use Short’s three-level framework of explanation to organize the findings of prior research, focusing on individual-, micro-, and macro-level research. Attention is focused on the findings of such research, but we also examine theoretical and methodological developments as well. Drawing from Short and life-course research, we introduce a cross-level temporal framework to guide future directions in gang research.