A multidiscipline approach to governing virtual property theft in virtual worlds

The crime of virtual property theft has become a serious problem in virtual worlds in recent years. Players of these games are repeatedly falling victim to this crime, with little or no repercussion for the offender. Virtual property often has a substantial real world monetary value and the theft of such items impacts greatly on victims. The problem of virtual property theft is complex, involving many legal, regulatory and technological factors. As such, trying to address this problem in a single dimension is not sufficient, each factor need to be addressed with a multidisciplinary approach. In addressing this problem, this paper provides a model for describing the issue of virtual property trading and the issues associated with virtual property theft. The paper also proposes an approach for handling virtual property theft based on improvements to laws related to virtual property and theft, improvements to the virtual world software components and better regulation from governments.

Sui generis protection for plant varieties and traditional agricultural knowledge : the example of India

Explores the sui generis protection of intellectual property, particularly patents, in biotechnology and traditional agricultural knowledge under Indian law. Focuses on the impact of amendments to the Patents Act 1970 and of the Plant Variety Protection and Farmers' Rights Act 2001 and Biological Diversity Act 2002.

Sui Generis protection for plant varieties and traditional knowledge in biodiversity and agriculture : the international framework and national approaches in the Philippines and India

The so-called ‘biotechnology clause’ of Article 27.3(b) of the WTO-TRIPS Agreement requires from member states protection for plant varieties either via the patent system or via an ‘effective sui generis system’ or by a combination of the two. Many developing countries prefer forms of sui generis protection, which allow them to include exceptions and protection measures for traditional agricultural practices and the traditional knowledge of farmers and local communities. However, ‘traditional knowledge’ remains a vaguely defined term. Its extension to biodiversity has brought a diffusion of the previously clearer link between protected subject matter, intellectual property and potential beneficiaries. The Philippine legislation attempts a ‘bottom-up’ approach focusing on the holistic perceptions of indigenous communities, whereas national economic interests thus far receive priority in India’s more centralist approach. Administrative decentralisation, recognition of customary rights, disclosure requirements, registers of landraces and geographical indications are discussed as additional measures, but their implementation is equally challenging. The article concludes that many of the concepts remain contested and that governments have to balance the new commercial incentives with the biodiversity considerations that led to their introduction, so that the system can be made sufficiently attractive for both knowledge holders and potential users of the knowledge.

The role of traditional knowledge and access to genetic resources in biodiversity conservation in Southeast Asia

The article examines international treaties linking trade and environment, their governance models and implementation in the context of Southeast Asia. Particular attention is being paid to the role of intellectual property concepts, customary law and traditional knowledge as incentives for biodiversity conservation and to difficulties in defining the subject matter and communities of knowledge holders. Indonesia’s regulation of traditional knowledge and access to biodiversity is discussed as example. The article concludes that national development goals and interests in royalty collection frequently dominate the discussion and that key concepts are still insufficiently defined to avoid overlaps and conflicts. Genuine local support for the conservationist aims of the models will depend on whether a benefit flow to communities can be ensured and their original role to act as incentives can be realised. International collaboration is important to avoid disputes concerning biodiversity related knowledge held across borders.

IP in Asia

This presentation will start with a brief review of the first phase of this project, which focused largely on the impact on innovation of legal and institutional IP reforms in Asia triggered by the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and by subsequent bilateral or multilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). The presentation will then show the emerging issues relevant for the second phase of the project, which in an increasingly diversified IP landscape will lie at the intersection of IP with other disciplines and other areas of law, such as competition law, media law, criminal law, human rights, environmental law and constitutional law.

Plant variety protection and traditional agricultural knowledge in Southeast Asia

This article provides an overview of the emerging plant variety protection (PVP) systems in Southeast Asia. The case studies are from countries that form part of the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), mainly Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. The focus will be on the intersection between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and popular demands for the protection of the traditional knowledge (TK) of local communities. Factors that fuelled the emergence and shaped the content of the PVP laws were the obligation to comply with art 27(3)(b) of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), aspirations for the development of the biotechnology industry, avoidance of possible sanction under the US ‘Special 301’ procedure, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), the role played by the International Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV), technical assistance from UPOV member countries, membership of international biodiversity treaties and demands from civil society organisations for protection of TK. The PVP laws that resulted present an uneasy amalgam of conventional property rights with some aspects of protection of TK. It is very likely that the local communities claiming TK rights will face legal hurdles, in as much as government agencies implementing the law will face administrative and technical complications.

Dematerialised data and human desire : the Internet and copy culture

Since Licklider in the 1960s [27] influential proponents of networked computing have envisioned electronic information in terms of a relatively small (even singular) number of 'sources', distributed through technologies such as the Internet. Most recently, Levy writes, in Becoming Virtual, that "in cyberspace, since any point is directly accessible from any other point, there is an increasing tendency to replace copies of documents with hypertext links. Ultimately, there will only need to be a single physical exemplar of the text" [13 p.61]. Hypertext implies, in theory, the end of 'the copy', and the multiplication of access points to the original. But, in practice, the Internet abounds with copying, both large and small scale, both as conscious human practice, and also as autonomous computer function. Effective and cheap data storage that encourages computer users to keep anything of use they have downloaded, lest the links they have found, 'break'; while browsers don't 'browse' the Internet - they download copies of everything to client machines. Not surprisingly, there is significant regulation against 'copying' - regulation that constrains our understanding of 'copying' to maintain a legal fiction of the 'original' for the purposes of intellectual property protection. In this paper, I will firstly demonstrate, by a series of examples, how 'copying' is more than just copyright infringement of music and software, but is a defining, multi-faceted feature of Internet behaviour. I will then argue that the Internet produces an interaction between dematerialised, digital data and human subjectivity and desire that fundamentally challenges notions of originality and copy. Walter Benjamin noted about photography: "one can make any number of prints [from a negative]; to ask for the 'authentic' print makes no sense" [4 p.224]. In cyberspace, I conclude, it makes no sense to ask which one is the copy.

Introduction: IP and the Asia-Pacific ‘spaghetti bowl’ of free trade agreements

The contributions to this book show the strategies and policies of countries in the Asia-Pacific region that have to grapple with international standard setting in what has been called the ‘spaghetti bowl’ of criss-crossing free trade agreements. The chapters show how intellectual property is just one among many political and economic factors that are used in trade off discussions. It leads to an often considerable further raising of IP standards in those countries that agree to higher protection levels, often for reasons that have little to do with the provision of incentives for technological progress. A more nuanced picture of IP protection in Asia shows the different interests of high protection countries, ‘first’ and ‘second tier’ newly industrialized and industrializing countries and the rather peculiar position of Australia and New Zealand. The chapter introduces the contributions to this volume according to these various groups of countries and of international law and the political economy of the region.

The South African Doctrine of Notice: a comparative law perspective

The doctrine of notice was received into South African law in Cohen v Shires, Mchattie and King (1881-1884) 1 SAR TS 41 by reference to a 17th century Dutch decision and English equity.The reception of the polar star of equity has led to doctrinal problems and differing views as to requirements for the operation of the doctrine ever since. This is illustrated in the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Meridian Bay Restaurant (Pty) Ltd v Mitchell 2011 (4) SA 1 (SCA). The Court mentioned fraud and equity as the doctrinal basis but also accepted the view that the doctrine is an anomaly which does not fit into the principles of either the law of delict or property law.The Court required actual notice (or dolus eventualis) and wrongfulness for the operation of the doctrine of notice. In the following discussion of the decision it is argued that for the operation of the doctrine it should be required that: (a) a prior personal right aimed at the acquisition of a real right existed; (b) a holder of a subsequent personal right was actually aware or foresaw the possibility of the existence of the prior personal right; and (c) the holder of the real right nonetheless infringed upon the prior personal right by concluding a subsequent contract and obtaining registration of the real right in the deeds office.