Intellectual Property Rights

The following resources may be of interest regarding copyright, patents & trademarks from an IT law perspective.

General information

The Migration of Intellectual Property to the Internet (WIPO)
What is a trade secret? - WIPO

EU Legislation

Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (InfoSoc Directive)
Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs
Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights (Enforcement Directive)
Directive 2009/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the legal protection of computer programs (Computer Program Directive)
Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the European Union trade mark (Trade Mark Regulation)


International Legislation

WIPO Copyright Treaty
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (WIPO)
ICANN | Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy

Additional reading

Ontology Copyright Licensing Considerations (science commons)
European Patent Office (EPO) - Patents for software?


Organisations or initiatives of interest

Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), the official trade marks and designs office of the European Union
European Patent Office (EPO)
WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organization