Justifications of Copyright law - Honour and Reputation

This blog always tries to bring you some news regarding IP in Latin America. Today is not exception. The majority of us (IP lawyers, academics, students and researches) always debate over the justification of IP. While in today’s market we see how this justification appears stuck in just the economic ones, one can see that this is not everything.

Starting again a new academic year, I am again revisiting the reasons for protection: economic, social and moral. I have not changed my mind; I still believe that all of them play an important role not only in the market but also in IP authors/creators’ existence. They build what we have in our society: innovation, creation, and so we can enjoy more of technology, medicines, literature, and music and so on.

Today, I sense that we needed to be reminded that IP while a negative right, it does not mean that is a negative matter in people’s life. This week, Stockholm, Sweden is announcing the recipients of the prestigious ‘Nobel Prize’ and I feel very proud to be one of those that encourage innovation by protection.

Moreover, as a ‘LATINA’ I am swollen with pride to announce to our small IP community that Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, has won the 2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature. This is the fifth time since 1960 that a Latin American writer is granted such honour (1990: Octavio Paz, México; 1982: Gabriel García Márquez, Colombia; 1971: Pablo Neruda, Chile; 1967: Miguel A. Asturias, Guatemala).

Arriba Latinoamerica!