Forskning i handelsrätt

Digitisation and Sustainability in Intellectual Property is one of Hanken's Areas of High Potential. Read more about the project

For more information view the project page on Haris

The Inner and Outer Limits of Patent Protection (PatLim) is a truly international and collaborative research project with an ambitious research agenda that strives towards oustanding research results on fundamental questions of patent law. The project combines top Finnish academic expertise with consortium partners consisting of Hanken School of Economics, Aalto University and the Helsinki Institute of Information Technology (HIIT).Other Finnish and foreign partners include: The IPR University Center at the University of Helsinki, the Center for Information and Innovation Law at the University of Copenhagen, University of Cambridge, UC Berkeley, University of Oxford and University of Bayreuth.. It would not be possible to research the complex subject-matter of PatLim sufficiently  and holistically without a consortium because there are simply not enough resources in any individual research institution in Finland for this kind of ambitious research project.

At the centre of PatLim is the interaction between law and technology. The goal is to provide a richer understanding of the ways that patent law reacts to and provokes complex technological phenomena. The methodologies employed are legal dogmatics, comparative law, Law & Economics, Law & Technology and quantitative and qualitative empirical research. Although PatLim considers the software sector, the goal of PatLim is to present research results that are applicable to other fields of technology, such as biotechnology, which, in the same way as software, can be characterized by cumulative, incremental innovation models.

The patent system is designed with one type of invention in mind: a new device or machine covered by a single patent. In incremental component industries, however, where new developments build upon existing technologies and innovation occurs through small improvements, modern products can easily be covered by dozens or even hundreds of different patents. This poses a severe problem for the operation of the patent system.

PatLim covers a broad range of issues spanning from the initial filing of the patent applications and going all the way to the enforcement phase. Accordingly, a clear distinction should be made between the acquisition of a patent right (the inner limits of patent protection) and the way it is used (the outer limits of patent protection). Specifically, issues relating to patentable subject-matter (novelty, inventive step, and disclosure) can be considered "inner limits", while patent flooding, hold-up problems, royalty stacking, enforcement and licensing concerns define the "outer limits" of (software) patent protection. In addition to the theoretical component of PatLim, the project also includes an empirical study. Empirical data concerning the reasons and consequences of the outer and inner limits of patent protection in the software sector are currently not readily available — data on the European state of affairs is especially lacking. The need for readily available information on the issue is particularly critical at the moment, as Europe, after many years of discussions, seems to be getting closer to achieving harmonization in the patent field, under projects such as the European Community Patent (COMPAT) and the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA). As desirable as the harmonization of the European patent system might be, the creation of a unique European patent court to deal with patent issues all across Europe, as it currently stands, raises serious patent 'quality' concerns; as well as anxieties over the effectiveness of the future patent examination system.

The extreme importance that software plays in our society is undeniable. At the same time, this is one of the industries that is most affected by both the inner and outer patent limits. Thus, there is an impellent need to deeply investigate software-related patent issues before taking any step forward. Neglecting this could, in fact, have policy implications and also result in inefficient solutions for the whole patent system.

Funding period: 1.9.2011-31.8.2015.
Amount of funding 800.000 euros (of which 50 % to Hanken)

For more information view the project page on Haris

Additive Manufacturing and Innovation: Technical, Economic, Legal, and Policy Related Aspects of Rising Technologies (AdManI).

This research project is an international collaborative study that aimed at ascertaining ground breaking results on fundamental questions related to intellectual property (IP) law, rising technologies (such as additive manufacturing), innovation, and policies. The AdManI project will run during 2015-2016 and will be financed by Tekes Opens in new window .

Additive manufacturing (AM), colloquially known as 3D printing, is part of a technological revolution that is likely to change the balance between low-cost countries, such as China, and high-cost countries, such as Finland, by making production in high-cost countries more affordable. This in turn is hopefully going to move production back from low-cost countries. AM is a technology by which products are ‘printed’ instead of ‘manufactured’, which in itself radically changes the thinking in the manufacturing business. As AM is a comparatively new technology, most of the legal and policy issues have not been mapped and analysed yet. Such an analysis would not only show the possible policy-related and legal issues that would have to be dealt with, but also it could be used to create policies and legislation that would attract business to Finland. Indeed, Finland has the potential to become one of the leaders in developing and supporting AM platforms, especially due to the fact that Finnish industry is based on specialized products in small series where the advantages of AM stands out. To this end, laws and policies could be used as a competitive advantage in the competition between nations.
 
AdManI is a comprehensive research project that will create a platform for wide-ranging opportunities for new industry sectors and business in Finland and will develop solid innovative and topical theories, as well as new practical tools for promoting the renewal of manufacturing trough AM technology globally. With a focus on the Nordic AM industry and on the European IPR ecosystem, this research project will increase knowledge, reduce ambiguity, decrease transaction costs, increase administrative and judicial efficiency, and thus provide guidelines to the Finnish (and European) legislator and innovation policymakers. The focus is on AM, but the results will be useful for other emerging technologies as well. Indeed, the recommendations that will be drafted building upon the research findings from the AdManI project would pertain to national policies, national legislation, but also to individual businesses by pinpointing new business models that the law creates.

The project´s HARIS page Opens in new window

FAME-IP is a project exploring the emerging concept of fairness, morality and equality at the interface of international and European intellectual property (IP) law, with particular regard to new business opportunities created by disruptive innovation. Fairness, morality and equality form fundamental values of a civil society that law promotes and protects. Facing various challenges of global governance, safeguarding these fundamental values in the social institutions is becoming more important than ever.

As IPRs are not ends in themselves, they should serve fundamentals values. Understanding the fine-grained mechanics of the interaction among fundamental values on one hand and the doctrinal concepts in the law on the other, is crucial in times when digital innovation of disruptive nature presents new opportunities and challenges to society. New technological developments such as digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AIs) constantly question the value neutrality of IPR, demanding norm changes. Despite this, value based discussion has been removed almost entirely from the main stream discourse on IP law and policy. Balancing protection and promotion of sound business practices and fair competition has become the rhetorical battle cry for law reforms, but the concrete changes in the IP law in response to these technologies are done without much heed to, or guidance from the fundamental values based considerations. This is in part due to incomplete internalisation of the values in IP law as well as methodological limitation. As a result, not only law suffers from uncertainty of under and over protection caused by fragmentation and overlaps, but resulting reform proposals create the illusion that value neutral technical adjustments to IP law may be made routinely to regulate unforeseen valuable behaviours. FAME-IP aims to bring the discussion of values - fairness. morality and equality - back into the centre of IP system reform discourse, by exploring how these values are internalised within European and international IP law and analysing to what extent external normative arguments - politicised, economised and constitutionalised,- can be used in IP system reform.

Read more about the research project at the Haris Portal.