The Amazing Diversity Framework of the Intellectual Property Rights Harmonisation

The process of globalisation has been boosted considerably by the application of information technology. Global communication and exchange of data have become everyday, almost trivial, phenomena. As a consequence of the globalisation of the modern world, the European Union and other international organisations have paid a lot of attention to harmonisation of legislation. These attempts, however, often seem to be concentrated on information technology itself rather than on the social problems that may have arisen from it. In IT law causes and consequences often appear to be blurred. The result of the, often very extensive, legislative initiatives does not fulfill its expectations. In this paper, a number of EU directives in the field of intellectual property will be discussed. It will be argued that, for example, the harmonisation of the intellectual property rights with respect to 'chips', software and databases, as well as the attempt to create a more general harmonisation of copyright, the 'internet directive', have led to more problems than were solved by them. Attempts to produce harmonisation in these fields have led to 'disharmonisation', while the new social problems arising from globalisation have hardly been dealt with. The standard legal interpretation of concepts in one country is often different from that in another country, leading to differences in judicial decisions and legislation between countries. The conclusion is that although new technology may have caused social problems, international harmonisation of legislation should aim at the differences in national, social and legal approaches to these problems rather than at the technological changes that underlie them. If this would take place, such extensive attempts for harmonisation would most probably not be necessary