We present a selective survey of the economic theory of intellectual property rights. After a brief description of the institutional framework, we discuss policy objectives and some basic welfare tradeoffs in intellectual property design. We consider the extent to which social objectives can be...

The protection of property, historically and practically is crucial in many aspects. The laws of democratic countries, as well as the international agreements put importance on such regulations. One of the common types of restriction to the right of a peaceful enjoyment of property comes from...

After reviewing the standards of secondary liability for copyright and trademark infringement in the online context, this Article considers the extent to which the liability of online service providers would change if a DMCA-like safe harbor scheme was applied in cases of secondary trademark...

The significance of data as an economic good in the digital economy quickly raises the question of who owns the data. More specifically, within the context of a data marketplace in which data is being exchanged or traded and where different bundles of rights (property rights) are trans-ferred...

Copyright law provides an excellent case study with which to study and evaluate Harold Demsetz's theory of property rights. Regardless of how one feels about the relationship between property and intellectual property, it is hard to escape the fact that intellectual property rights have expanded...

We investigate whether patents that are jointly held by legally independent companies help sustain product-market collusion. We use a simple model of repeated interactions to show that joint patents can serve collusive purposes. Our model generates two testable predictions: when joint patents...

This paper discusses a series of ECJ judgments on national mortgage enforcement proceedings in light of the Directive on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts. According to the Court, national courts must be able to provide interim measures suspending mortgage enforcement proceedings, thereby...

Despite the rapidly growing volume and economic importance of data in the digital economy, the legal framework for data ownership, access and trade remains incompletely defined in the EU and elsewhere. De facto data ownership dominates and often leads to fragmentation or anti-commons problems in...

In this contribution an overview is given of, what might be called, the ‘matrix’ of European property law. This matrix (the “classical model” of property law) consists of two layers. The first layer encompasses the leading principles and ground rules of property law. The second layer...