INTRODUCTION
In November 2002, Professor Cornish gave three 1-hour long lectures at the University of Oxford (the Clarendon Lectures) titled ‘Intellectual Property: Omnipresent, Distracting, Irrelevant?’. These lectures were published by Oxford University Press in 2004, with the necessary updates, as a book. This important work has been reviewed several times over the years. My purpose is not to construct another review, but to ask, 20 years after its publication, if we have come any closer to answering the questions asked by Professor Cornish – to wit, in which instances is Intellectual Property (IP) omnipresent, a distraction or irrelevant? Professor Cornish used the metaphor of an unpleasant skin condition in elucidating his theme. Under the descriptor of omnipresence, he was addressing IP rights (IPRs) that were ‘spreading like a rash, particularly across new technologies and threatening to leave few patches of unblemished, open skin’ …
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Caroline B Ncube, Intellectual property norms in the polycrisis – (still) omnipresent, distracting, irrelevant?, Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice. Published: 15 June 2024.
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