Research On The Limitation Of Rights In Intellectual Property

The limitation on intellectual property is of great importance to realize the legislative aim and value goal of intellectual property law, especially exerting the function and operation thereof based on the condition of new technology. However, current research distinguishing different kinds of intellectual property to analyze different classified and concrete limitation institution thereof is often confined to the idea of the institution, and is lack of abstract and general theoretical discussion as well as systematical construction of the limitation institution of intellectual property from the viewpoint of unified legal department in intellectual property law. The theoretical foundation of limitation on intellectual property can be analyzed in terms of jurisprudence, law and economics. The trend of socialized ownership is the external reason of such limitation. The principle of balancing of interests forms the theoretical foundation of the limitation on rights. The economic reasons of the limitation on rights primarily lie in defining property right, which follows the principle of the lowest transaction cost in order to adjust the right distribution relationship between the owner of intellectual property and the public, and to realize the best benefit of the resource of right distribution. At the same time, the said limitation can also reduce trade expenses institution.The system of limitation on intellectual property is made of interior and exterior limitation on rights. The narrowly-defined of limitation of rights namely the interior limitation primarily comes from the intellectual property law itself, which takes the forms of protecting domain limitation, protecting term limitation and functional limitation. The functional limitation can be sorted as to the limitation on use of intellectual products including fair use and statutory license and compulsory license, and on circulation of intellectual products, which includes the exhaustion of exclusive rights. Except for the interior limitation, the broadly-defined limitation on intellectual property rights also includes exterior limitation which comes from competition law mainly refers to antitrust law and the basic principles of civil law such as the honest and trustworthy principle and forbidding right abuse principle. The extent of limitation is greatly affected by the development of technology. Counter-limitation is clearly emphasized on the international conventions of intellectual property based on the condition of new technology, and it is the main tendency of the development of limitation on intellectual property rights nowadays.