This book tries to find common principles to intangible assets, like patents, trademarks, energy, information and financial instruments. Such common principles are particularly missing in German law, which is based on the idea that property rights can exist with regard to tangible objects only. Authors from different legal disciplines explore the justification and limits of this idea.
In the modern world, intangible assets are of increasing importance. The notion encompasses not only intellectual property rights, such as patents or trademarks, but also energy, information (like data or software), financial instruments and goods that exist in virtual reality only (like avatars). Jurisprudence has been struggling with these objects since the times of Roman law. In Germany, a major problem is created by the idea underlying the Civil Code (BGB) that property rights can be held in tangible objects only. Intangible objects remain completely outside the Code's realm. The result is that piecemeal solutions prevail with regard to issues such as the applicable rules to the protection or transfer of rights in incorporeal goods. The authors of this work try to mark a change. By searching for common principles applicable to all kinds of intangible assets, they attempt to provide a coherent treatment of the new phenomena. Beside similarities and common principles, they also explore fundamental differences between these assets that call for specific rather than general rules.
Table of contents:
Vorwort der Herausgeber
Herbert Zech: Unkörperliche Güter im Zivilrecht. Einführung und Überblick -
Christian Baldus:
Res incorporales im römischen Recht -
Thomas Rüfner: Savigny und der Sachbegriff des BGB -
Stefan Enchelmaier: Unkörperliche Güter im Common Law -
Dário Moura Vicente: Unkörperliche Güter im romanischen Rechtskreis -
Alexander Peukert: »Sonstige Gegenstände« im Rechtsverkehr -
Fryderyk Zoll: Unkörperliche Güter im akademischen Entwurf des Gemeinsamen Referenzrahmens -
Eva Micheler: Wertpapierrecht und Sachbegriff. Zur dogmatischen Einordnung von Effekten -
Matthias Casper: Register statt Papier? -
Matthias Leistner: »Immaterialgut« als Flucht aus dem Sachbegriff? -
Gottfried Schiemann: Energie als Schutzgegenstand absoluter Rechte -
Andreas Spickhoff: Der Schutz von Daten durch das Deliktsrecht -
Michael Bartsch: Software als Schutzgegenstand absoluter Rechte -
Gerald Spindler: Der Schutz virtueller Gegenstände -
Matthias Lehmann: Anstelle eines Schlussworts
