Design and Copyright Protection of Products - World Law and Practice
![handle is hein.journals/ibl27 and id is 192 raw text is: Design and Copyright
Protection of Products -
World Law and Practice
Morag MlacDonald. Spyros M
Maniatis and (71ma Suthersanen
FT Law& Tax (loose-leaf).
Design and Copyright Protection
of Products - World Law and
Practice is an an impressive two-
volume service put together by
Morag MacDonald of Bird &
Bird in London, together with
Spyros M Maniatis and Ura
Suthersanen of Queen Mary &
Westfield College of London
University.
Design and Copyright Protection
looks at products capable of
protection by design rights. It sets
out to explain how such rights are
granted on a worldwide basis,
dealing with both individual
countries and international
conventions and agreements.
Unlike other intellectual
property rights, such as
trademarks, patents and
copyright, design rights differ
]narkedly from country to
country. As far as the European
Union is concerned, this is likely
to change with the
implementation of the EU
Directive on Legal Protection of
Industrial Designs (OJ1993
C345/14, as amended by OJ 1996
C142). What will not change is
the fact that protection often
coies from more than one
statute, as well as from torts such
as passing off or unfair
competition.
In the light of the variation in
law in each country, there are
four sections for each country,
designs, copyright, utility models
and semiconductor topography
rights. The section on designs
relates only to registered designs.
This gives some uniformity,
although it does mean if the
reader is seeking overall coverage
as to design protection in a
particular country, that it will be
necessary to skim or read the full
section.
As well as being available in a
large two-volume set, a CD-ROM
version is available which, given
the size of the work and its
admirably systematic
organisation, is essential. An
impressive list of almost 100
countries is covered, spanning
from Andorra to Zambia. The
text has been derived from
individual contributors in each
country who were given
questionnaires to fill in which
were then adapted by Spyros M
Maniatis and Uma Suthersanen.
The beginning of Design and
Cop right Protection sets out a
guide on how to use the work. It
divides each topic up into a
nunber of standard headings
covering the four specified areas,
together with a section dealing
with the extent to which there
has been an overlap of protection
under Design, Copyright and
Utility Models laws, as well as a
section on international and
bilateral Conventions. There is
also a glossary of terms setting
out useful definitions of terms
used in many of the
contributions, including concepts
of equity, the rules under the
Paris Convention for the
Protection of Industrial Property,
licensing and assignments. There
is also a rather cryptic digest of
national laws showing available
laws, membership of regional
and geographic groupings and the
countries where information is
either currently not available, or
will be available in future
releases. The first release covers
the bulk of jurisdictions,
including the world's major
trading countries. Those yet to be
covered include Kuwait, Pakistan,
Tanzania and Tunisia.
The actual digest of National
Laws appears in manageable
sections alphabetically organised.
Each section includes a helpful
map locating the country! The
individual digests are very much
written in point form. Whilst
there is reference to significant
cases, these are few and only
relate to cases of real significance.
The section headings are clear
and logical. For example, in
dealing with design law, there is
identification of the national law,
whether there is a registration
requirement, what is protected
and not protected and conditions
of registration. The subject
matters covered include all those
of practical significance, such as
ownership, who can make an
application, which documents are
required for an application,
relevant costs and the creation of
security interests. Those
provisions which defy
categorisation come under the
heading 'idiosyncrasies'. Each
section also has a five-line
surmnary of which laws are
available in the particular
jurisdiction.
The book is organised with the
glossaries and information on
how it is to be used, followed by
alphabetical digests of national
laws and the texts of
international conventions and
treaties, their membership,
followed by a professional
directory, setting out details of
the contributors. The country
suniaries also include
summaries of the regional laws,
such as that for the Benelux
countries and the African
Intellectual Property
Organisations. For its first issue,
Design and Copyright Protection
is impressively comprehensive.
The international section
includes not only the Berne
International Business Lawyer April 1999](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ibl27&div=47&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Design and Copyright Protection of Products - World Law and Practice
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