Project description
Tracing the history of intellectual property rights in Europe
There has recently been a growing interest in intellectual property rights (IPR), especially owing to economic and technological changes in society. However, little is known about how IPR have historically affected creative industries. The EU-funded CREATIVE IPR project will research the development and impact of IPR in Europe’s creative industries, tracing the history of national and international agreements from the 19th century to the present. Research will analyse the establishment of organisations for IPR and their roles, as well as investigate the evolution of creative rights in music and fashion. Understanding the history of IPR will help to establish future policies that protect and promote creativity.
Objective
CREATIVE IPR aims to study the rise of intellectual property rights in the creative industries, from the international treaties of the late nineteenth century to the present day, with a focus on Europe in the global world.
CREATIVE IPR examines the consequences of this development for the creators. What did intellectual property rights mean to a musician, or to a fashion designer in twentieth century Europe? Who captured economic value or failed to do so? In order to answer these questions, CREATIVE IPR proposes an original bottom-up approach, examining from the ground the macro and the micro aspects of the rise of intellectual property rights in the creative industries.
CREATIVE IPR pursues the questions in three arenas. The first arena is the formation and impact of national and international institutions and organizations for intellectual property. The second and third arenas are the role of authors’ rights societies in the music industries, and the management of creativity in the fashion industries. For each arena, cross-cutting themes are pursued: authorship and creativity, firms, technological change, legal frameworks, and the role of the commons – the public domain.
In recent years, intellectual property rights have, due to technological and economic change, attracted significant scholarly interest. Yet attention has not been paid to their impact on creators in a historical perspective. By analyzing the micro histories of the creators who negotiated the growing legal regime in the light of a transnational context CREATIVE IPR will fill a significant knowledge gap, help refine our ideas about the impact of intellectual property rights on creators, and open paths for future research. Ultimately it will help us understand how societies can foster rich and diverse creative industries.
Fields of science
Not validated
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantHost institution
0313 Oslo
Norway