Each day we seem to encounter a new technological development that changes, in subtle but significant ways, how we consume information, conduct business, manage our personal health, or simply communicate with one another. Inevitably, with such developments, intellectual property (IP) and related areas of the law are implicated. This Special Issue provides an opportunity to explore the challenge to IP systems and structures presented by the rapidly evolving realities of the ‘New Technological Age’. In addition to tackling specific questions that are currently confronting (and confounding) courts and policy-makers domestically and internationally, this Special Issue will explore larger normative questions about how law ought to respond to paradigm shifting technologies. For example, is it possible or even desirable to enact ‘technologically neutral’ laws, or to apply old laws in ‘tech-neutral’ ways? What kinds of regulatory approaches might improve the capacity of our IP laws to adapt to the specific demands of new technological innovations?
This Special Issue seeks articles that focus on any doctrinal, policy, regulatory or theoretical aspect of Intellectual Property in the New Technological Age. Authors are invited to reflect upon the evolving relationship between IP law and new technologies in light of established and emerging stakeholder interests—and the public interest in general. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: the changing role of IP in our culture/society/marketplace; the pursuit of ‘technological neutrality’ in IP law; sites of tension between copyright norms and new digital services; patentability and gene or bio-technologies; trademarks, territoriality and the online marketplace; end-user and intermediary liabilities and remedies; emerging IP management and enforcement strategies; the expansion/contraction of user rights and defences in respect of new technological tools.
Submission
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Laws is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 300 CHF (Swiss Francs). English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.
Carys J. Craig is the Associate Dean, Research & Institutional Relations and an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. She is the guest editor for this LAWS special issue.