ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the international construction of a preferred concept of creativity through the institution of intellectual property, towards identifying the assumptions and motivations supporting that construction and its ongoing legitimation as an unassailable and seemingly indefinable cultural value. It draws upon current developments in international intellectual property law in the context of finding "creativity" and "originality". The significant power of the narration of intellectual property is derived from its capacity to "name" creativity. The recognition of creativity and newness is therefore bound not only by the territorial limits of shared meaning, but also by the "territorial" restrictions imposed by the proprietary system of recognising valuable creative events. The current challenges of digital technologies and networked communities to conventional models of the creative work that are offered by copyright are not without critical precedent. As an indisputably positive value, the rhetorical turn of creativity imports cultural distinction as it were, into the intellectual property system.