New Technologies and Regulatory Approaches : Crisis, Danger or Opportunity for Copyright and Trademark Law in the United States

New technologies often pose challenges to the existing intellectual property regime. This chapter explores three possible government policy responses to new technologies. First, a government can “do not harm” and not affirmatively regulate the technology. Second, a government may wait for the relevant industry to self-regulate or create policies that provide an incentive for private sector self-regulation. Third, a government may affirmatively regulate the new technology or change existing intellectual property laws. This chapter will first summarize the key principles of U.S. copyright and trademark law, and then in the context of the Internet analyze how U.S. government policy makers have used all three approaches to solve copyright or trademark problems posed by the Internet. The chapter then concludes that the most appropriate governmental response to new technology in an early stage of the technology for the government to patiently wait until the technology matures or to facilitate private sector self-regulation, and as the technology matures or if self-regulation fails, government regulation may be appropriate