Benjamin Raue
Nachahmungsfreiheit nach Ablauf des Immaterialgüterrechtsschutzes?
1. Edition 2010
218 pages
ISBN 978-3-89971-592-7
V&R unipress
Schriften zum deutschen und internationalen Persönlichkeits- und Immaterialgüterrecht -
plus S&H
Book
The basic problem to protect intellectual property is to find an adequate balance between incentive and optimal distribution. The legislator has solved the conflict by strictly limiting the duration of intellectual property rights, e.g. of patents and copyrights. However, the former owners of IP rights try to protect their market position with all legal means even after the rights have expired. They argue imitators would free ride on their product image and mislead consumers. It assists them greatly that their products are often protected by cumulative norms with no time limit such as (three dimensional) trademarks, passing off, presentation as imitation, protection of work titles.
For the first time, this work examines systematically the effect of all relevant legal norms which affect the public domain of former intellectual property rights. It develops a comprehensive concept in which the freedom to imitate is balanced with the protection of the public against misleading commercial practices and the protection of the former IP right holders against the unfair exploitation of their product image.
