Paving the Way for the Environment: Channelling 'Strong' Sustainability into the European IP System

摘要

This article explores the emerging need for embedding environmental sustainability into the European IP law system by focusing on few important examples. We argue that, at the moment, societal values such as environmental sustainability are primarily incorporated into the 1PR regime indirectly as part of general argumentation on competition, or only as exceptions to strong property rights. We shed light over major reasons for why sustainability could face insurmountable obstacles if being channelled into the IPR framework only or primarily via exceptions and limitations, and we develop recommendations for how environmental sustainability could be better considered directly into the scope of the exclusive rights.