The rise of the fourth industrial revolution (IR) is deeply embedded in a wider context of privatization of knowledge, rising costs of innovation and uneven distribution of capacity between countries. But debates on a ‘balanced' policy framework to tackle these issues have until now floundered...

This essay is a personal inquiry into the nature of media technology, law, and ethics in an era marked by the convergence of media that have been largely separate-print, broadcast, cable, satellite, and the Internet-and by the consolidation of ownership in all of these media. What inventions,...

Novelty is a basic requirement of patent law. An inventor cannot obtain a patent if the invention exists in the “prior art,” a term that generally refers to knowledge and technology already in the public domain. Interestingly, an earlier-filed patent document qualifies as prior art as of its...

Modern economic partnership agreements like the TPP, TTIP, and RCEP address a wide range of areas of commercial regulation with varying levels of commitments. Estimates of their impacts vary widely, raising questions about the models and modelling protocols used to derive them. Issues of major...

The traditional practice of intercepting posts and telegrams was extended to telephony, both wire-tapping and call-logging, at a time of little regard for privacy and with minimal transparency. It was the introduction of competition, particularly non-state operators, that required codification...

Academic debates about how to regulate new technologies have moved from theory to practice, as the digital revolution now proceeds to remake nearly every industry, especially those left largely unchanged in earlier phases of disruptive innovation. Applying square regulations to round...

New trade rules being implemented as part of the on-going wave of major bilateral/regional trade agreements are impacting the complex and evolving innovation ecosystem in non-neutral ways, favouring some innovation modes (such as patent-oriented research and development), but generating...

Courts often state that patents are justified by disclosure theory, the idea that patents are awarded as quid pro quo for the public disclosure of inventions. But many commentators have argued that disclosure theory should be accorded no weight in the design of the patent system because patented...