European Union law affects the
law of intellectual property in two main ways. The first is under EC Treaty
provisions on non-discrimination, free movement of goods (in relation to
parallel imports) and principles of competition law (in relation to licensing of
IPRs or refusal to grant such licenses). A significant part of this book deals
with those aspects of Community law that are common to most intellectual
property rights across the EC, including the effect of the EC treaty on national
intellectual property rights, limited harmonisation of those rights in some
areas, and how EU law impacts on enforcement.
The second way in which EU law effects intellectual property
is in those areas where the substantive national intellectual property laws of
the member states have been harmonised, or supplemented, by the establishment of
Community-wide unitary intellectual property protection.
The rest of the book looks in detail at the effect of
Community law and of harmonisation on specific intellectual property rights,
including copyright and related rights, trade marks, geographical indications,
designs, database rights, patents and plant variety rights.
