Professorship of the Cluster of Excellence – Civil and Commercial Law with a focus on international intellectual property law

Prof. Dr. Alexander Peukert

The initial application provided for a tenure-track junior professorship (W1) in “Protection of Intellectual Property”. Alexander Peukert was appointed to this junior professorship on November 1, 2008. After Peukert turned down calls for full professorships at the universities of Bonn, Siegen and Linz/A in the first half of 2009, he was appointed as a tenured professor (W3) at Goethe University in September 2009. Since then, the professorship has been called “Civil Law and Commercial Law with a Focus on International Intellectual Property Law”.

Peukert’s research focuses on a case study of global conflicts that are analyzed in the cluster. In addition, intellectual property rights are of general relevance to the cluster’s research questions. This is because these rights define the rules of permissible communication. This, in turn, is the general focus of the cluster topic with its focus on justification discourses.

The research on intellectual property carried out at the Chair during the reporting period can be divided into two main areas. Firstly, the basic concepts and structures of the international intellectual property system were investigated. An understanding of these conceptual and dogmatic foundations is a prerequisite for understanding the relevant processes of change. Essays were presented on the structure and effect of exclusive rights to which individuals or several persons/groups, including indigenous peoples, are entitled, as well as on the concept of intellectual property, which itself conveys justification narratives and tends to elevate the protection of these rights to an end in itself. In the process, conflicting interests in access to knowledge are in danger of being neglected. These are often put forward under the banner of the public domain. A comprehensive study on the concept, function and dogmatics of this counter-narrative has also been produced, which breaks new ground for German law, but also internationally. A legal policy proposal for a new institutionalization of these access interests in the form of independent public domain commissioners, analogous to data protection officers, has already been published in advance. The doctoral thesis of a member of staff dealt with nullity proceedings as instruments for the protection of the public domain. This research can be traced back to the question of the relationship between property and freedom. Peukert gave guest lectures on this fundamental topic at Keio University in Tokyo. Peukert also organized an interdisciplinary seminar at Goethe University together with the philosopher Christoph Menke (FF 1) on the subject of “Subjective Rights. History, Theory, Criticism”.

The second main branch of research concerned the intellectual property system in the context of globalization. The aim here is to shed light on the processes of change that are often perceived as a crisis in this area of law. This involved cooperation with the cluster projects “Development Cooperation” (Prof. Kadelbach, FF 4) and “Western Norms and Local Media in Africa” (Prof. Diawara, FF 2). Two doctoral theses were written on the protection of traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples. Peukert has also researched the transfer of Western concepts of intellectual property law to local cultural practices in Mali (field research 2009) and generally to the long-promoted protection of traditional knowledge. The challenges that digital communication via the Internet poses for the international intellectual property system were also examined. Two articles explain the changes that the Internet has brought about in copyright law and the legal and extra-legal strategies used by rights holders, governments and users (e.g. Google) to assert their interests. Another article examines the question of why otherwise law-abiding citizens commit mass, punishable copyright infringements on the Internet and what arguments these actors use to justify their unlawful behavior. Finally, a comprehensive, comparative law contribution to the Cluster’s “Extraterritoriality” project (Prof. Zekoll, FF 4) examined the problem that intellectual property rights are territorially restricted, while communication and business regularly do not stop at national borders. Traditionally, this discrepancy between a patchwork of rights and global communication has been mitigated by conventions under international law. However, as multilateralism has been at an impasse for years, many states are attempting to regain regulatory sovereignty unilaterally by extending their intellectual property laws to extraterritorial matters. During the reporting period, Peukert also worked on an international research group of the Max Planck Society, which is developing model regulations on applicable law and jurisdiction in transnational intellectual property cases. A doctorate funded by the Cluster researched concepts for the coordination of such multinational, parallel court proceedings. In particular, the cooperation of courts was examined. This model is likely to play a key role in the future in a transnational, heterarchical system without a common highest court.

Publications:
Peukert, Alexander (2012): The public domain. Concept, function, dogmatics (Intellectual Property and Competition Law, Vol. 63), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, VIII, 321 pp.
Peukert, Alexander (2013): “Comments and Notes to the Preamble and to Art. 2:701-2:706” (with Mireille van Eechoud) of the CLIP Principles, European Max Planck Group on Conflict of Laws in Intellectual Property (CLIP), Conflict of Laws in Intellectual Property, The CLIP Principles and Commentary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 25-46, 193-222.
Peukert, Alexander (2010): “Vor §§ 12 ff., 12-14, 39, 42, 62, 93 UrhG”, in: Gerhard Schricker/Ulrich Loewenheim (eds.), Urheberrecht, Kommentar (4th ed. 2010), 275-342, 836-847, 862-874, 1223-1231, 1749-1760 (new edition of the commentary by Adolf Dietz).
Peukert, Alexander (2010): “§§ 37, 38, 40, 41 UrhG”, in: Gerhard Schricker/Ulrich Loewenheim (eds.), Urheberrecht, Kommentar (4th ed. 2010), 823-836, 847-862 (new edition of the commentary by Gerhard Schricker).
Peukert, Alexander (2010): “Urheberpersönlichkeitsrecht”, in: Ulrich Loewenheim (ed.), Handbuch des Urheberrechts (2nd ed. 2010), §§ 15-17, 206-226, 236-255 (new edition of the commentary by Adolf Dietz)
Peukert, Alexander (2013): “The Fundamental Right to (Intellectual) Property and the Discretion of the Legislature”, Goethe University, Faculty of Law, Research Paper No. 7/2013, forthcoming in: Christophe Geiger (ed.), Human Rights and Intellectual Property: From Concepts to Practice.
Peukert, Alexander (2013): “Ein wissenschaftliches Kommunikationssystem ohne Verlage – zur rechtlichen Implementierung von Open Access als Goldstandard wissenschaftlicher Publizierens”, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Department of Law, Working Paper No. 5/2013, (also published in: Michael Grünberger/Stefan Leible, Die Kollision von Urheberrecht und Kommunikationsverhalten der Nutzer im Informationszeitalter, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014.)
Peukert, Alexander (2013): “Das Verhältnis zwischen Urheberrecht und Wissenschaft: Auf die Perspektive kommt es an!”, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Faculty of Law, Working Paper No. 5/2013.
Peukert, Alexander (2013): “Das Urheberrecht und der Wandel des wissenschaftlichen Kommunikationsssystems”, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, (together with Marcus Sonnenberg).
Peukert, Alexander (2013): “Der digitale Urheber”, in: Winfried Bullinger et al, Festschrift für Artur-Axel Wandtke zum 70. Geburtstag, pp. 455-463; also Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Faculty of Law, Working Paper No. 4/2013.
Peukert, Alexander (2014): “Immaterialgüterrecht und Entwicklung”, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Department of Law, Working Paper No. 3/2013, (also published in: Philipp Dann/Stefan Kadelbach/Markus Kaltenborn, Development and Law. A Systematic Introduction, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2014).
Peukert, Alexander (2013): “Intellectual property: the global spread of a legal concept”, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Faculty of Law, Research Paper Series No. 2/2013.
Peukert, Alexander (2013): “The Colonial Legacy of the International Copyright System”, in: Mamadou Diawara & Ute Röschenthaler (eds.), Staging the Immaterial. Rights, Style and Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa Oxford: Sean Kingston.
Peukert, Alexander (2012): “Territoriality and Extraterritoriality in Intellectual Property Law”, in: Günther Handl/Joachim Zekoll/Peer Zumbansen (eds.), Beyond Territoriality: Transnational Legal Authority in an Age of Globalization (Queen Mary Studies in International Law), Brill Academic Publishing, Leiden/Boston, 189-228.
Peukert, Alexander (2012): “Why do “good people” disregard copyright on the internet?”, in: Christophe Geiger (ed.), Criminal Enforcement of Intellectual Property: A Handbook of Contemporary Research, Edward Elgar Publishing Cheltenham/Northampton, 151-167.
Peukert, Alexander (2012): “Intellectual Property”, in: Jürgen Basedow/Klaus J. Hopt/Reinhard Zimmermann (eds.), The Max Planck Encyclopaedia of European Private Law, Volume I, Oxford University Press, 926-930.
Peukert, Alexander (2012): “Related Rights”, in: Jürgen Basedow/Klaus J. Hopt/Reinhard Zimmermann (eds.), The Max Planck Encyclopedia of European Private Law, Volume II, Oxford University Press, 1443-1446.
Peukert, Alexander (2012): “Property and Freedom” (Shoyūken to Jiyū), Keio Law Journal, 425-469.
Peukert, Alexander (2011): “A European Public Domain Supervisor”, in: IIC, 125-129.
Peukert, Alexander (2011): “The competitive significance of collective trademarks,in Jan Rosén” (ed.), Individualism and Collectiveness in Intellectual Property Law, Edward Elgar Publishing Cheltenham/Northampton, 241-254.
Peukert, Alexander (2013): “Das Prinzip der Selbstverantwortung im Lauterkeitsrecht”, in: Karl Riesenhuber (ed.), Das Prinzip der Selbstverantwortung, Mohr Siebeck: Tübingen, 395-422; (discussed by Meder, AcP 213 (2013), 305-315).
Peukert, Alexander (2011): “”Sonstige Gegenstände” im Rechtsverkehr”, in: Stefan Leible/Matthias Lehmann/Herbert Zech (eds.), Unkörperliche Güter im Zivilrecht, Mohr Siebeck: Tübingen, 95-122, (discussed by Mecke, UFITA 2012, 301-304).
Peukert, Alexander (2011): “Individual, multiple and collective ownership of intellectual property rights – Which impact on exclusivity?”, in: Annette Kur/Vytautas Mizaras (eds.), The Structure of Intellectual Property Law (ATRIP Series), Aldershot, UK/Brookfield, U.S.: Edward Elgar, 195-225.
Peukert, Alexander (2011): “Intellectual Property as an End in Itself?”, in: European Intellectual Property Review (EIPR), 67-71.
Peukert, Alexander (2011): “Beauftragte für die Gemeinfreiheit”, MMR 2011, 73-74.
Peukert, Alexander (2010): “Deutschland v. Google: Dokumentation einer Auseinandersetzung”, UFITA 2010/II, 477-487.
Peukert, Alexander (2010): “hartplatzhelden.de – Eine Nagelprobe für den wettbewerbsrechtlichen Leistungsschutz”,WRP 2010, 316-321.

Events:
Lecture by Prof. Martin Kretschmer, Limitless Copyright?, November 5, 2013.
Lecture by Prof. Philipp Theisohn, Kopieren, Zitieren, Paraphrasieren. Die Grenzen des literarischen Eigentums, 6 June 2013.
Lecture by Prof. Shubha Ghosh, Identity & Invention: The Culture of Personalized Medicine Patenting.
Lecture by Dr. Thomas Jaeger, Stand und Perspektiven des EU-Patents, 04.07.2012.
Lecture by Prof. Graeme Dinwoodie, The Community Trade Mark and Visions of Europe, 29 May 2012.
Lecture by Prof. Dan Burk, Patent Law’s Problem. Dan Burk, Patent Law’s Problem Children: Patentable Subject Matter in Transatlantic Perspective, November 24, 2011.
Conference Verwaiste Werke im europäischen und deutschen Urheberrecht, ALAI Deutschland, November 30, 2011.
Intellectual Property Rights in Asia: The Facts, the Myths, and the Future sowie IP Infringers or Innocent Bystanders? Consumers, Facilitators & Intermediaries, Prof. David Llewelyn, 18-19.10.2011.
Grenzen der Rechtsdurchsetzung im Immaterialgüterrecht, Working Group Meeting of the Section for Comparative Commercial and Economic Law, Annual Conference of the Society for Comparative Law, Trier, 16.9.2011.
Freedom of Speech and Intellectual Property: Conceptualizing the Conflict(s), XXV. Weltkongres für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie, together with Prof. Peter Niesen, 16.8.2011.
The Trips Agreement: Fifteen Years Later, lecture by Prof. Susan K. Sell, 12.5.2011.
Die Wettbewerbsordnung als Normative Ordnung, lecture by Dr. Horst Satzky, in cooperation with the Graduiertenkolleg Law and Economics of Money and Finance, 19.1.2010.