Sui Generis Intellectual Property Protection

The standard forms of intellectual property protection, namely, copyright, patents, trademarks and trade secrets, have a long history and are well regulated in the legislative systems of most jurisdictions. However, there are specific kinds of subject matter that, due to their characteristics, cannot be adequately protected by these standard forms of intellectual property instruments. At the same time, these categories of subject matter require legal protection in order to ensure the balance between the public's access to these creations and the creators' rights. For these reasons, many jurisdictions introduce a special form of intellectual property protection, namely, sui generis regime, i.e., intellectual property legal regime “of its own kind”, designed to serve the specific needs of a particular subject matter. This book analyzes the intellectual property protection regimes in the EU and the U.S. available for three categories of subject matter that are often considered as requiring sui generis protection, namely, databases, designs and plant varieties. One of the main objectives is to evaluate whether the chosen subject matter in fact requires sui generis intellectual property protection and whether the introduced sui generis regimes have proved to be successful over time. The final chapter of this book analyses the perspectives of sui generis intellectual property protection for works generated by AI systems. This volume offers a comprehensive analysis of sui generis intellectual property rights and will be a key source for both scholars and practitioners with an interest in intellectual property law. 

Iana Kazeeva is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna. She studied international commercial and tax law in Moscow and holds a Candidate of Sciences degree (Ph.D. equivalent) in international financial law (dissertation on fiscal decentralization). She has an LL.M. degree in European and International Business Law from the University of Vienna and completed the U.S. intellectual property law certificate program at Stanford University. Prior to joining the University of Vienna, she worked at the Mountain View office of a California-based media technology company, primarily engaged in reviewing and negotiating technology and commercial contracts. She also gained practical experience as a senior legal counsel at the legal department of a global producer of mineral fertilizers based in Moscow, focusing on project finance and legal compliance. Her academic research interests include intellectual property, international contract and data protection law.