2. Not a straightforward issue

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From the course by National Research University Higher School of Economics

Industrial Organization: Strategy and Competition in Business

1 оценка

National Research University Higher School of Economics

Industrial Organization: Strategy and Competition in Business

1 оценка

Industrial Organization is the area of economics that studies the markets as institutions, the state of competition and strategic interaction among firms, the industrial policy and the business decisions firms make within the market framework. The course looks at the markets from three different perspectives: the economic theory, the applied business perspective and the institutional and legal perspective. The focus of the course is split equally between the economic theory and business perspective but there is a significant legal component incorporated in various topics. The course includes economic modeling, game theory, numerous real life examples and several case studies. We explore interesting topics of market organization such as negotiations, antitrust, networks, platforms, electronic markets, intellectual property, business strategies, predation, entry deterrence and many others. The basic objective of the course is to enable the student to understand the structure of markets and the nature of strategic competition. Knowledge in this course will be valuable for the students in acquiring managing and governance skills, enriching their understanding of the institutional framework of business, and improve their analytical ability in negotiations. Prerequisites: The course requires understanding of basic economic modeling, knowledge of intermediate microeconomics (especially production/cost theory), knowledge of basic concepts and methodologies of game theory, intermediate econometrics and basic calculus.

From the lesson

Intellectual property

In our last lecture we will get acquainted with the concept of intellectual property and its institutional protection. Intellectual property becomes more and more relevant as our lives become more and more digital. IP is not a straightforward concept. Its definition can be complicated and tricky and its application may vary from one jurisdiction to another. In our lecture we will examine some basic principles that are internationally standard. We will understand the basics of copyright, patents, trade secrets and trademarks. We will talk about the international protection of IP and, of course, we will have several examples for all complicated notions. Also, this is our last lecture and our end segment is reserved for the “final note”.

1. IP as an institution13:17

2. Not a straightforward issue6:47

Meet the Instructors

Kosmas Marinakis
Assistant Professor
ICEF and Faculty of Economics Sciences, HSE

In today's modern economies,

actually in our society in general,

intellectual property is everywhere,

is a very important part of the total wealth of nations.

For example, these very lecture that you're listening

to right now is copyrighted material.

The software rendering the slides that you see right now is a registered trademark.

Behind me, in reality,

I have the green screen.

I do not have the slides that you see.

This are rendered with special software afterwards.

And the company that produces the software has a trademark on this particular software.

The manufacturer of the device that you hold right now in your hands and you see

these lecture probably holds several patents on the technology of this exact device.

Coursera has legitimate claims over the material

that I have put together for this lecture and also the other lectures,

which material I put together after reading from several copyrighted sources.

I cannot create a product that resembles this one or that one.

These are two products that they hold design patents,

their design is protected by law itself,

and I'm not allowed to create another product,

my product that looks very similar to that and confuses consumers.

The most important difficulty that the institutions have with

IP is that IP is not always straightforward.

It's not that it's not only straightforward for the lawmakers,

it is not straightforward even for the users.

Once the laws exist,

it may be very hard for the users to keep up with what is correct to do in every time.

Let me give you some examples, and you'll understand.

To some of those questions that I will ask you,

there is no clear answer.

Can I reproduce a part of someone else's paper In my research?

Like there are some important papers in

the literature that some other people make discussion about them.

When you discuss about the paper,

can you call this people?

Can you bring up some some pages of this paper and just comment on them?

Is this allowed?

Can I copy, for my own use,

some pages from a book that I already own legally?

Like I have this big book of game theory in my office,

and sometimes I want to prepare for my next day's lecture,

and I have to carry the entire book with me to home and then back to the office.

And instead of doing that,

can I just copy the chapter and take a few pages of

copies with me instead of the entire book? Is this illegal?

Because in the first page of this book has a that says,

"You cannot reproduce part of or

the whole book without a written permission from the publisher."

Is this a fair use or not, what I want to do?

Can I transferred a song from a CD that I own to

my iPod or to my iPhone so I can listen to it later?

I bought the song,

but do I have the rights to the physical media that I

bought or I can transfer the song wherever I want?

What of the two is the correct answer?

Moreover, can I play this particular song at a party?

Because if you go to the small print when you download the song or when you buy a CD,

it says that, "This is only for private use."

And when you use it at the other party,

it now becomes maybe public use.

Can I use a picture of someone without their permission?

That is an essential question.

Do you have a copyright of your face or not?

Can I even post the picture of myself with no one else,

but just accidentally in the background or on

my shirt or somewhere there's a logo or some copyrighted material?

So, is this even allowed?

Is this possible?

To all these questions,

there are no unique answers.

In some cases, the courts can tell you what is legal,

but it will be very difficult to understand what is ethical in those cases.

We also have an institutional problem.

The institutional problem is the problem that the law

tries to solve with the case of the intellectual property.

That is that you have to strike a balance between two contradicting goals.

The first goal is that you want to protect the idea.

You want to protect the creative people that come up with new ideas and drive a society,

economy, literature, art, technology,

and everything to better places.

So, you have to protect them.

You have to give them rights for their invention.

So, you have to incentivize them by giving them rights to produce creative works.

On the other hand,

you want to maximize the social benefits of the idea by

sharing it with as many people as possible.

So, you have to strike a sensitive balance between protection of

the idea and also redistribution of the idea.

So, it will give wealth to more and more people in our society.

What is for sure,

the case is that IP is not a fashional problem, is not temporary.

IP came to stay.

It will become more and more relevant as

our lives relate more and more to digital information.

Once we have our economy to depend so much on information,

IP is going to be one of the most important aspects of economics.

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