Intellectual Property and International Law: A Research Framework in: Irene Calboli, Maria Lilla Montagnani (
Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper
Written for a Handbook on Intellectual Property Research, edited by Irene Caboli and Maria Lilla Montagnani, this paper offers some thoughts on legal research that concerns or applies ‘international law’ concepts, perspectives and methodologies to intellectual property (IP). The idea is to discuss how research questions related to IP can be framed from the standpoint of international law. This begs an initial question: what do we mean by ‘international law’ and how does this relate to IP? The first section tackles these questions by offering a range of possible views on the notion of international (IP) law. Section two then considers how a multi-dimensional conception of international law frames research questions on IP. It also gives some more concrete examples of an international law approach to IP.
