This book is a comparative analysis of the theory, scope and type of design protection, which differ widely from country to country. Few cross-jurisdictional comparisons of industrial design laws have been previously published and this book arises from one of the first such attempts by the Intellectual Property Committee of the International Bar Association.
Industrial designs are particularly interesting because the laws in many countries attempt in different ways to find a balance between protection for the artistic and freedom to use the purely functional, between the proprietary rights of the creator and the public domain rights of the competitor.
The work comprises twenty country reports written by a prominent intellectual property lawyer, each chapter focused around a common series of questions to facilitate cross-jurisdictional comparison.
