Eigentum an Information

Christine Godt examines the increasing importance of the law pertaining to intellectual property in the transformation of the industrial society into the information society. She describes the substantive reasons for the expansion of intellectual property rights, in particular patent protection. Three case studies define clearly the changing function in the areas of research and technology policies, international environmental protection and international economic policy. The author analyzes the relationship between the allocation of information in private law and the public sphere and identifies the various conflicts in private and public law.