Cases and Materials on Intellectual Property
William Cornish, Formerly Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law,
University of Cambridge
"This book contains all the major cases along with extracts from statutes...a must
for any Student studying IP law." Student Law Journal
"... contains all the cases they (students) need in a clear and well ordered
format. I would recommend any firm with an intellectual property section of its library to
include this book on its shelves." New Law Journal
Cases and Materials on Intellectual Property is a detailed, in-depth and completely
updated source book of relevant and pivotal cases and statutory materials. It is essential
reading for both students and practitioners of IP law in the UK.
Contains an extensive and up-to-date collection of the major statutory materials in IP
law, drawn from the UK, EU and international conventions
Includes comprehensive tables including a table of European Legislation and a table of
International Treaties and Conventions
PREFACE
This sourcebook has a limited purpose It is designed to put together legislative texts
and extracts from cases which form the basis of United Kingdom law on the various aspects
of intellectual property rights proper and those topics, such as liability for breach of
confidence and passing off, which form adjuncts It is intended to be used together wsth
texts that give an account of the law as a corpus, and in particular with William Cornish
and David Llewelyn, Intellectual Property Patents Copyright Trade Marks and Allied Rights
(5th edition, 2003) It does not therefore have its own commentary or lists of suggestive
questions The material that has been chosen for inclusion is inevitably selective, for the
volume of case-law is very considerable What is more, it is expanding exponentially with
the amount of work going to courts and the eagerness of competing report series to pinion
in print every passing bird
It is only three years since the previous edition, but a book like this goes rapidly
out of date On the legislative front, there has been rather less activity than around the
millennial moment Nonetheless, the last edition had to include what it could of the
British government's plans for implementing the European Community's extensive Directive
on Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society (as it was grandly described)
Eventually an Order (SI 2498/2003) discharged the British government's obligations in the
matter and the results are digested here for the delectation of readers Partly because the
process in Britain does not require primary legislation, implementation of the Directive
could be put through without the kind of political difficulties that have occurred in
other EU states If the opportunity is presented of altering basic intellectual property
law at the same time, given the highly charged debates which surround it at present, the
legislative process will inevitably be delayed, however hard Brussels may puff By
contrast, it is at Community level that progress on creating a Community Patent must take
place, and there a different sort of political engagement continues to stand in the way of
any progress
New case law there is aplenty Particularly intriguing is the entry of human rights
principles on the embattled stage of relations between celebrities and the snooping media
especially the press, both high and low, as tall-walking broadsheets shrink and slobber in
imitation of tabloids What will British courts do when "taking account" of the
success of Caroline ex-Monaco in challenging the omnipresent activities of German
camerapersons9 A frisson to anticipate, surely Particularly impenetrable remain the
efforts of courts to define what patents may be allowed for inventions turning upon novel
computer programs and upon biotechnological issues that in some sense or other concern
"human life" In the meantime, the flood is unceasing of cases that test the
prospects of "branders" to devise ever more embracing forms of marketing
strategy through trade marking and the like At least the European Court of Justice is
intermittently unhappy with the potential for anticompetitive behaviour that such efforts
presage But by no means always the last is still to come of the ambitions of the
Benebourgeoisie to gold-plate the legal armoury of the advertiser It cannot be long before
parts of this edition will be ripe for junking Which parts is a nice question
Paperback
740 pages