Let me tell you a story ... intellectual property, character, narration

Abstract

Intellectual property is that area of law most closely preoccupied with a society's cultural output and creative self, in that it is that system which identifies the 'author', protects the cultural materials produced by the creator, and allows for commercialisation of those materials within the increasingly significant knowledge economy. In this way, the intellectual property system narrates society and suggests its cultural progress, legitimating certain materials emanating from that society - sufficiently original, sufficiently inventive, sufficiently distinctive, sufficiently new. What is the role of intellectual property in authenticating our society and what existence is there for materials produced and understood outside the framework of patents, copyright, trade marks and designs and the like? Is there a world outside the world view of copyright? This paper will illustrate the performance of intellectual property through a series of events and identities, and the building of creative communities through narration. © 2011 Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.