Is the the knockoff economy a knockout for intellectual property?
| Autor | Ejan Mackaay |
| Cargo | Emeritus Professor of Law, Université de Montréal (Montréal, Quebec, Canada). Doctor of Laws (LL.D.), University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam, Netherlands). E-mail: ejan.mackaay@umontreal.ca |
| Páginas | 2-18 |
Rev. Direito Econ. Socioambiental, Curitiba, v. 7, n. 1, p. 02-18, jan./jun. 2016
ISSN 2179-8214
Licenciado sob uma Licença Creative Commons
Revista de
Direito Econômico e
Socioambiental
doi: 10.7213/rev.dir.econ.socioambienta.07.001.AO01
Is the the knockoff economy a knockout for
intellectual property?
1
A economia da cópia é um nocaute para a propriedade
intelectual?
Ejan Mackaay
2
Universitè de Montréal (Canada)
ejan.mackaay@umontreal.ca
Recebido: 11/01/2016 Aprovado: 05/02/2016
Received: 01/11/2016 Approved: 02/05/2016
Abstract
This paper aims to analyze the effects of knockoff economy in the intellectual property.
Therefore, the text analyzes some phenomena of industries with informal fences and no
direct formal intellectual property right, like the recipes of haute cuisine, sports strategies,
type fonts, financial innovations, databases, fashion and music industry.
Keywords: knockoff economy; intellectual property; copyright; industries; economy.
Como citar este artigo/How to cite this article: MACKAAY, Ejan. Is the the knockoff economy a knock-
out for intellectual property? Revista de Direito Econômico e Socioambiental, Curitiba, v. 7, n. 1, p.
2-18, jan./jun. 2016. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7213/rev.dir.econ.socioambienta.07.001.AO01
1 Reflections on Kal Raustiala and Christopher Jon Sprigman, The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation
Sparks Innovation, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012, 272 p.; ISBN 978-0195399783,
2 Emeritus Professor of Law, Université de Montréal (Montréal, Quebec, Canada). Doctor of Laws
(LL.D.), University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam, Netherlands). E-mail: ejan.mackaay@umontreal.ca
Is the the knockoff economy a knockout for intellectual property?
3
Rev. Direito Econ. Socioambiental, Curitiba, v. 7, n. 1, p. 02-18, jan./jun. 2016
Resumo
O objetivo do presente artigo é analisar os efeitos da economia da cópia para a propriedade
intelectual. Para tanto, o texto analisa alguns fenômenos de indústrias com cercas informais
e sem a proteção formal do direito de propriedade intelectual, como as receitas de alta
cozinha, estratégias esportivas, tipo de fontes, inovações financeiras, bancos de dados,
moda e indústria da música.
Palavras-chave: economia da cópia; propriedade intelectual; direitos autorais; indústrias;
economia.
1. Introduction
Conventional wisdom has it that copyright is essential to ensure that
creative efforts wil l be directed at producing cultural creations of various
kinds. Without this or some other stimulus, creative talent would be de-
ployed elsewhere in endeavours where it will earn proper rewards. In the
course of history various techniques have been used to create such a stimu-
lus: first mover advantage, secret, favouritism by the powerful, employ-
ment contracts, pensions, state procurement contracts, state subsidies,
sponsorships, lotteries, to name just a few. (Mackaay, 2013)
As a stim ulus, copyright, which will concern us here, and intellectual
property generally, are thought generally to outperform these other tech-
niques. Copyright is meant to be granted without discretion once its prede-
fined conditions are fulfilled, is entirely decentralised (does not depend on
any one person's view of the value of the creation) and procures a reward
that is a function of how much different consumers are willing to pay for
the product or service it protects. For this scheme to work, copyright hold-
ers have to have control over who can use their creation. Without such
control, consumers would free ride, i.e. consume without paying for it. All
cultural creations are information goods which can used by many persons
without diminishing their utility for anyone else a feature which econo-
mists refer to as characteristic of "public goods". Information goods are not
naturally scarce in the economic sense, though the talent to create them is.
For physicalgoods, whose consumption by one person prevents con-
sumption by another, control over usage is ensured by some form of
"fence" that shuts out anyone but the title holders and persons admitted
by them. Fences can take a variety of forms: ditches, locks, armoured
doors, electronic registration for software that triggers automatic updating,
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