Companies share their intellectual property with potential competitors in many different ways, including patent pooling. A patent pool is an agreement between two or more patent owners to license one or more of their patents to one another or to third parties. In Europe the Commission used the term patent pool as the bringing together of the patents of two companies, which makes it available for u

This thesis concerns the relationship of the EU and the Saami indigenous people of Northern Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula. The thesis highlights the positive and negative features of Sweden and Finland's accession to the European Union in 1995 and Norway's subsequent signing of the European Economic Area agreement. The Saami are Europe's only recognized indigenous group and the ac

A common feature within the European Union is that the responsibilities for environmental protection are separated from those managing natural resources and the economy. There are strong arguments for the idea that to be able to successfully resolve the many environmental challenges that lay ahead, it is necessary to integrate environmental concern in those sectors of the economy that affect them.

The ''functionality doctrine'' discussed in this paper was developed in the American trademark law as a judicial concept. It emerged soon after the adoption of the U.S Federal Trademark Act in 1946 and was aimed to define the implementation of the provisions of the Act prohibiting the trade mark protection for the functional signs. The doctrine gained its universal application and

The aim of this paper is to investigate certain aspects of the legal relationship between the EC and Switzerland in the field of public procurement. Public procurement can be defined as the purchase of goods, services, works and supplies by public authorities and enterprises. It comes as no surprise that public procurement has major economic ramifications, accounting for around 14% of the EC's

The aim of the paper is to discuss some of the basic elements of the legal system in EC law in comparison with the EEA Agreement. The conclusions will have special reference to Icelandic law. The reason for this approach is that the EEA Agreement is closely linked with EC law. Therefore it is necessary to begin approaching the basic rules within the EC in order to better understand the EEA system

Why has there been a spate of debate and discussion on the matter pertaining to protection of names such as Champagne, Havana, Tequila, Basmati, and Darjeeling etc.? What are geographical indications and why does any dialogue at the international level on the issue result in a political and legal dead end? The aim of this research paper has not only been to follow these debates but also to analyse