In recent years, the need to reconcile expanding trade mark rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular freedom of expression and freedom of competition, has been emphasized in various scholarly publications. There is a widely-shared view in the academic community that trade mark protection, while constituting a central instrument to ensure market transparency and the proper functioning of markets in a more general sense, must be reconciled with other core values, such as free expression enhancing consumer information and consumer choice, and free competition preventing unnecessary market entry barriers. 1

Zusammenfassung: Der Beitrag stellt im Überblick dar, welche Bedeutung das Immaterialgüterrecht (IP) für die Entwicklung einzelner Volkswirtschaften und die globale Wissensgesellschaft hat. In einem ersten Abschnitt wird erläutert, dass in der Geschichte des Immaterialgüterrechts die Vorstellung dominierte, dass Immaterialgüterrechte technologischem und sonstigem Fortschritt zuträglich sind. Im zweiten Abschnitt wird gezeigt, dass dieses lineare Expansions-Narrativ aus ökonomischer und wirtschaftshistorischer Sicht als widerlegt gelten muss. Dazu werden die Argumente der IP-Optimisten und die Gegenargumente der IPPessimisten anhand empirischer Studien bewertet. Der Beitrag schließt mit sozialwissenschaftlichen und normativen Schlussfolgerungen im Hinblick auf die künftige Ausgestaltung des internationalen Immaterialgüterrechts. Abstract:The article gives an overview of the relationship between intellectual property (IP) and development. The first section shows that the dominant assumption in the history of IP was that IP rights are generally favorable to socio-economic progress. The second section explains that economic and historical research has proven this linear expansionist narrative to be untenable. In doing so, the article compares the arguments of IP optimists with counterarguments of IP pessimists in light of empirical studies. The final section addresses the consequences of these findings for the future of the international IP system.

On 15 December 2020, the European Commission submitted a proposal for a regulation on a single market for digital services (Digital Services Act, DSA) and amending Directive 2000/31/EC. The legislative project seeks to establish a robust and durable governance structure for the effective supervision of providers of intermediary services. To this end, the DSA sets out numerous due diligence obligations of intermediaries concerning any type of illegal information, including copyright-infringing content. Empirically, copyright law accounts for most content removal from online platforms, by an order of magnitude. Thus, copyright enforcement online is a major issue in the context of the DSA, and the DSA will be of utmost importance for the future of online copyright in the EU. Against this background, the European Copyright Society takes this opportunity to share its view on the relationship between the copyright acquis and the DSA, as well as further selected aspects of the DSA from a copyright perspective.

The article gives an overview of the relationship between intellectual property (IP) and development. The first section shows that the dominant assumption in the history of IP was that IP rights are generally favorable to socio‐economic progress. The second section explains that economic and historical research has proven this linear expansionist narrative to be untenable. In doing so, the article compares the arguments of IP optimists with counterarguments of IP pessimists in the light of empirical studies. The final section addresses the consequences of these findings for the future of the international IP system.

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