Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Dinwoodie, Graeme B. --- "Foreword" [2014] ELECD 96; in Calboli, Irene; Lee, Edward (eds), "Trademark Protection and Territoriality Challenges in a Global Economy" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014) xv

Book Title: Trademark Protection and Territoriality Challenges in a Global Economy

Editor(s): Calboli, Irene; Lee, Edward

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781953907

Section Title: Foreword

Author(s): Dinwoodie, Graeme B.

Number of pages: 2

Extract:

Foreword
When I teach courses in international intellectual property law, I often
start by suggesting that much of the content that we will cover can be
understood as an attempt to solve the problem of territoriality ­ both
territoriality as a legal (political) concept, and territoriality as the
dominant defining unit of social and commercial ordering. Understanding
why international intellectual property law (apparently) paradoxically
embraces a commitment to this foundational principle is crucial to an
appreciation of the proper roles of international and local systems in
regulating the creative and commercial environment. As the social power
of territoriality comes under pressure from global trade and online
activity, it might be tempting to jettison the legal principle entirely rather
than to work out how to harness its enduring benefits in a contemporary
context. But casting territoriality aside would be too simplistic a solution.
Many of the contributions to the volume illustrate nicely the continuing
importance of national autonomy, of difference and differentiation, of
elevating local values in an increasingly global time. And others demon-
strate the practical and political difficulties of substituting universal
norms in place of what we now have. But that does not make this a
conservative tome. It is very far from that. All the contributions recog-
nise, and grapple with, the reality that intellectual property scholars must
reconsider the normative and practical claims of territoriality in light of
changing circumstances. But that reconsideration might sometimes lead
us to reaffirm historical commitments and redouble efforts to preserve
what powerful ...