The pressure to develop an intellectual property litigation framework at a supranational level is enormous. The tensions among technological change, the forces of an ever-more global market, the quest of market actors for tactical advantage and of legal actors for equitable solutions, and the ever-present imperative of the principle of economy in judicial proceedings all cry out for resolution. In the progress toward this framework, the fourteen leading authorities who have put this remarkable symposium together show that European Community law, and particularly its effect on judicial cooperation among Member States in civil and commercial matters, has led and continues to lead the way.

This is the first book to emphasize the role of the judicial cooperation aspect of cross-border intellectual property litigation. Starting from European private law as it is currently evolving, the authors focus intensively on the issues surrounding such central questions as the following:

• How different should the treatment of IP litigation be from other transnational private activity?

• How different should the treatment of different IP forms be, at least from a private international law perspective?

• How do the answers to these questions relate to methodological shifts within the discipline of private international law itself?

• How should the doctrinal solutions we give integrate “substantive” values such as the EC basic freedoms or new ideas about the meaning of “property” in the context of intellectual works?

• What should the relationship be between the rules on jurisdiction and the rules on applicable law?

• How global or how distinct do we want the European legal regime in this area to be?

• What should be the coordination and/or allocation of competences between the various international institutions and instruments?

The wide-ranging analyses presented here will contribute substantially to the establishment of a common frame of reference among intellectual property lawyers and private international lawyers, across the EU and on a global scale. For policymakers, practitioners, and academics in international IP law, this book offers food for thought for legislative projects, reviews and renews doctrines in private international law and the transnational legal treatment of intellectual property, and affirms a forward-looking dialogue on these crucial matters.