In this volume, leading scholars of intellectual property and information policy examine
what the common law – understood broadly as a method of reasoning, an approach
to rulemaking, and a body of substantive law – can contribute to discussions about
intellectual property. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary ideas and principles that
are embedded within the working of the common law, the volume shows that answers to
many of modern intellectual property law’s most puzzling questions may be found in the
versatility and adaptability of the common law in all of its wisdom. The various chapters
argue that, despite the degree of interdisciplinary specialization that the field sees today,
intellectual property is fundamentally a creation of the law; and that the basic building
blocks of the law can shed important light on the working of our various intellectual
property regimes.
Shyamkrishna Balganesh is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania
Law School. His scholarship focuses on understanding how intellectual property and
innovation policy can benefit from the use of ideas, concepts, and structures from
different areas of private law. He obtained his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he
was an Articles & Essays Editor at the Yale Law Journal and a Student Fellow at the
Information Society Project.