Introduction

The experience of the Western world of the impact of its intellectual property laws since the end of the second world war has been an interesting one. The last half century has been an era in which trade in the world has been made progressively freer. This conflict between essential principles of modern commercial life has also had to be met by the European Community. Confronted with national rights which clearly restricted the creation of the competitive free trade area on which the economic and political union on which the new Europe was to be based, European institutions were obliged to meet the challenge head on. The market leaders have certainly played an important role. Thus the international bond market under which capital freely moves internationally was created by the vision of bankers and the ingenuity of their legal advisers.