About the book
About the book. What is the proliferation of intellectual property rights all about? This is the question that Christian Bessy tries to answer by placing himself at the crossroads of economics, law and sociology. Based on extensive research, he shows how things considered inappropriate until now, including elements of the living, have become “goods”, values, the object of property rights, by means of a creeping legal codification, but also how this extension gives rise to new forms of expropriation of the wealth produced.
Patents are indeed at the heart of the economic development of multinationals, start-ups and the rise of new technologies. This growth leads to the birth of a vast competition where inventors, often employees, investors, intermediaries, lawyers and judges battle on the floating terrain of an international jurisdiction subject to intense contradictions.
By drawing the contours of the appropriation of intellectual creation and the new class of lawyers who participate in it, the author draws a portrait of contemporary (intellectual) capitalism, where the grip of law threatens the workers of innovation.
Participants
Presenter/author:
- Dr Christian Bessy, Economist and CNRS Director of Research
Discussants:
- Dr Els Torreele, Policy Associate at the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP)
- Dr Greitje Baars. Reader in Law and Social Change at City, University of London
Dr Christian Bessy
Christian is a specialist in the economic analysis of institutions, the labour market and intellectual property. His recent publications include the book La contractualisation de la relation de travail in 2007, the co-edited volume entitled Law and Regulation of Economic Activities (2011), The Organization of Lawyers' Activities, Between Monopoly and Market (2015) and has just republished Experts and Forgers – For a sociology of perception (2014, 1995). He is also a professor at the ENS Paris-Saclay.
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