Sale of Goods and Intellectual Property: Problems with Ownership

Sale of goods and intellectual property are necessarily connected. Intellectual property rights (IPRs), such as copyright, patents, trade marks and design rights, can be discussed and analysed as a coherent whole. However, the impact of the connection between sales of goods and IPRs has been somewhat ignored from both sides (sales, and intellectual property). In the digital era, questions concerning the interrelationship of sale of goods law and intellectual property law have become particularly problematic. There are difficulties in determining the rights of purchasers of goods, due to the structure of the law on sale and doctrinal complexity in intellectual property law. In this article, the effect of potential growth in embedded and nano-technologies, as well as the impact of IPR pirates (those who take without authority), trolls (those who acquire IPRs purely for their financial re-disposition value), and tyrants (those who misuse the considerable strength of IPRs to prevent usage) will be analysed. It will be suggested that a reliance on the usual, pragmatic methods of solving the identified problems will be insufficient to deal with the growth of integrated goods.