Intellectual Property and Democracy: Reconceptualising Problems of Practice and Power for Civil Society.

Does intellectual property law create issues of practice and power in society? The paper describes the theoretical framework for forthcoming empirical research that will examine the relevance of the intellectual property system to business organisations who are in a relationship characterised by economic imbalance - epitomising the "problems of exclusion, difference, diversity and the politics of identity" that are built in to the concept of a civil society" (Bent Flyvbjerg "Habermas and Foucault: thinkers for civil society?" (1998)).Preliminary research has indicated that where the business of one company is to create new products to meet specific needs of another more powerful company, there can be certain issues around the ownership of the intellectual property in the products. This research will inquire into the practice of such companies with regard to the ongoing management and ownership of intellectual property and will ascertain the roles played by black letter intellectual property laws on the one hand and business strategies and impositions of economic power (sometimes but not always imposed in contractual form) on the other.The paper will apply discourse theory (as conceptualised by Michel Foucault and extended by Laclau and Mouffe and as discussed and applied in a critical legal studies framework in the works of Rosemary Coombe and James Boyle) to explain the research findings and to tentatively propose alternative ways in which the intellectual property discourse might be managed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]