The Evolution of Intellectual Property from the Code of Hammurabi to the Riyadh Design Law Treaty

The Evolution of Intellectual Property from the Code of Hammurabi to the Riyadh Design Law Treaty, currently in its second edition, is an incomparable book authored by Nuno Pires de Carvalho who has revised and reorganized his masterful From Babylon to the Silicon Valley—The Origins and Evolution of Intellectual Property: A Sourcebook, not only adding many new findings on sources of intellectual property (IP) law but also restructuring the work to reflect the current expansion of IP law to previously unprotected areas of business and professional activity. This new edition presents more than four hundred primary sources—many translated into English for the first time—that sharply detail the evolution of IP and its associated law, from its origins in ancient Babylon up to its current prominence in global trade and international law. 

The author assembles his chosen sources (including statutes, court opinions, and many less formal modes of documentation), each preceded by a note on context and relevance, in a way that sheds definitive light on such issues and topics as the following: 

• the moral and ethical origins of unfair competition law, which continue today, 4,000 years later, to inform its expansion into new areas, such as trade secrets, regulatory data, and the general preservation of honest behavior in commerce;
• how the private appropriation of knowledge evolved from recognizing the creative work of cooks in Ancient Greece into supporting the continued technical progress that we have experimented since the Industrial Revolution;
• the underlying tensions in the appropriation of knowledge in certain industries, such as pharmaceuticals and biologicals, that have given rise to shifting, holistic responses and controversies;
• the birth of trademark law during the Commercial Revolution, based on the legal principles it inherited from heraldic law;
• how copyright and industrial design laws evolved from different origins during the Renaissance, in Europe, to become indispensable tools that promote and protect creativity in the expression of ideas; andas a backdrop to the entire book, how social
• changes over the last forty centuries have only altered the structure of IP, but not its function, which remains the same since the Code of Hammurabi: a tool used by producers and merchants (including artists) to differentiate products and services in their daily struggle to attract customers in an honest and competitive manner.

As a compilation of sources that would be otherwise unavailable to most readers, this thoroughly documented account of why and how intellectual property has emerged and evolved is a treasure trove for all those interested in how the imperatives of civilization have designed and continue to design the scope and the limits of intellectual property. With this book, readers will be able to clearly discern how IP law applies in the present and in the future. It will be warmly welcomed by practitioners seeking a deeper understanding of their working tools, as well as by academics, government officials, and relevant international organizations around the world.