Companies use trademarks to protect their brands from outright imitation or competition by confusingly similar products. However, publication of trademark filings by the trademark office discloses information about a firm's new product or service. This creates a trade-off between legal...

An ongoing saga concerning the conflict between geographical indications and trade marks in Australia has existed since 1993 in relation to wines. While the implementation of the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement in 2004 has clarified the approach, some grey areas in Australian law currently...

This paper examines ownership and control of registered trade marks in franchise networks in Australia. It draws on a sample of franchisors that have franchisees trading from premises regulated by the Retail Leases Act 1994 (NSW). It examines problems surrounding the current valuation of trade...

In 2004 lanceerde Google een fabuleus boekendigitaliseringsproject dat de ambitie heeft om meer dan 30 miljoen boeken uit het literair werelderfgoed online beschikbaar te maken. Naast veel lofspraak lokte dit ‘Google Books Project' ook heel wat kritische reacties uit. Niet geheel onverwacht...

The economic and social roles of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) are among the most puzzling mysteries of the current literature. The British Industrial Revolution initiate the era of a sustained economic growth all over the word and established institutions that have important effects even...

The music, publishing and motion picture industries are each today struggling to identify new business models that might replace existing mechanisms for funding professional content. In this podcast, we consider the legal and strategic roadblocks that might stand in the way. Guests include: Brad...

This study measures the extent of cross-border geo-blocking and the impact on product availability and pricing for three non-audio-visual digital media products (music, e-books and games) in the EU Digital Single Market. We find that cross-border access to online media stores is generally...

The aim of this paper is to explain evidence of unfair practices by online platforms towards business users, particularly SME's. First, using survey data, we show that sellers operating with four different categories of platforms multi-home (marketplaces, app stores, social networks and online...