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The Relationship between Copyright and Patent Protection in European Union Law

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Author

Editor

  • Rosa Maria Ballardini
  • Marcus Norrgard
  • Niklas Bruun

Summary, in English

The purpose of this book chapter is to investigate to what extent technical function can be protected under European Union (EU) copyright law. Technical function has been explicitly excluded under other regimes of protection in the Union, for example, trademark and design protection law, to avoid overlap (also known as cumulation) between these regimes and patent law. No such statutory provisions have been enacted under EU copyright law, but like under trademark law and design protection the object of protection in copyright law could potentially overlap with patent law. This chapter therefore begins by investigating whether the concept of technical exclusion is a unified concept in EU law and if so, to what extent copyright law fits into that mould. The aim is not to do a comprehensive investigation of the relationship between patent law and other regimes of industrial property, but rather to present the main characteristics of technical exclusion under protection of industrial property. Hence, the study only covers trademark law and design protection law, but omits trade secret law, unfair competition law and sui generis regimes.

Publishing year

2015

Language

English

Pages

231-251

Publication/Series

Transitions in European Patent Law : Influences of the Unitary Patent Package

Document type

Book chapter

Publisher

Wolters Kluwer

Topic

  • Law

Keywords

  • patent law
  • European Union (EU)
  • copyright law

Status

Published

Research group

  • Lund University Centre for Business Law (Swedish abbr: ACLU)

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 978-90-411-5605-1