Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1940, Page 130

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LE NORD
RÉSUMÉ.
Northern Co-operation in the Sphere of Intellectual Property.
“Intellectual Property” is a concise general term for the rights asso-
ciated with the production of the intellectual worker. The right of property
in the physical object in which his work is laid down does not sufficiently
protect the author, composer or artist. A kindred right must be granted
in the abstract work of the mind. This right is sometimes called a right
of property, sometimes it is described by different terms.
In this domain new problems continually arise, partly as a result of
the constant development of modern technique, partly owing to the in-
creasingly collective structure of modern society. There is, moreover, a
continual struggle between social and individualist views, and due con-
sideration must be given to either.
It is essential to achieve an international solution of these problems.
This has been done by the “Berne Convention”, to which a large number
of countries, including Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark are
signatories. This convention secures reciprocal protection as between the
countries in respect of these highly international questions.
Northern co-operation in the field of intellectual property may hence-
forward develop in two different ways:
1) The Northern countries may adopt a uniform attitude or act jointly
at the conferences held from time to time to revise and amend the Berne
Convention. This policy has been established in recent years as between
the four Northern countries.
2) The Northern countries may aim at uniform rules of law in the
field of intellectual property. This work has been taken up in recent
years by the abovementioned four countries and is followed with interest
by Iceland.
The main reasons for these endeavours are:
a) The establishment of uniform Northern legislation is an ancient
and fundamental tradition of the co-operation between the brother na-
tions, cf. President Birger Ekeberg in “Le Nord”, 1938 pp. 82—91. It
would be appropriate to extend this work to legislation on intellectual pro-
perty. Moreover, there was formerly a certain community of law between
Norway and Denmark, as there is to-day between Norway and Finland.
b) The close kinship of language and ideology between the Northern
countries provides a natural basis for such common legislative work.
c) In spite of the fact that all the Northern Copyright Laws are of
recent date (the Finnish and Norwegian from 1930, the Swedish from