The discussion about appropriate legal rules for the digital economy has raised the question of the ownership of non-personal data, e.g. in the context of value networks of firms, smart manufacturing and connected cars. The article analyzes from an economic perspective whether there is a need...

The "UsedSoft" decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) about the right of a buyer of a downloaded copy of a software to resell this copy triggered a controversial discussion about the applicability of the "exhaustion" rule (US: first-sale doctrine) to copyright-protected...

This paper shows that with respect to data the legal category of "property" (physical property or intellectual property) is not a suitable model for dealing with the complexity of data governance problems. Although data can be a valuable asset and might need incentives for its generation, the...

The discussion about appropriate legal rules for the digital economy has raised the question of the ownership of non-personal data, e.g. in the context of value networks of firms, smart manufacturing and connected cars. The article analyzes from an economic perspective whether there is a need...

The international system of IPRs (patents, copyrights) is a complex and partly fragmented two-level system of national IP law regimes and international treaties, characterized by a combination of minimum harmonisation and the retaining of some national sovereignty (e.g., TRIPS agreement with...

With the advance of smart IoT devices (Internet of Things) the amount of valuable data will increase dramatically. For much of the thus generated non-personal data no legal rights exist. In its Data Act (DA) draft the EU Commission proposes new data access and sharing rights for the users of IoT...