Publications

Résumé :

Limiting the effects of human activity on the environment is probably the major challenge that humanity faces. Based on this observation, Guillaume Henry, lawyer at the Paris Bar and associate researcher at IRPI (Intellectual Property Research Institute), has questioned the impact of industrial property rights on the development of green technologies.
The first part of this study examines the role of patent law in the diffusion of green technologies, seeking to determine whether patents are an accelerator or a hindrance to this circulation. If patents do have a positive effect on research in the field of green technologies, the effort should be emphasized on the legal and fiscal tools that encourage owners to license.
The second part of the study is devoted to the distinctive signs. Since the marketing departments have found that green communication sells, eco-labels, sometimes misleading, invaded advertising. The challenge is to determine the role of trademark law in the fight against deceptive practices called greenwashing. The main objective is to regulate the access to protection of trademark law by refusing registration or canceling deceptive or descriptive signs.
The novel analysis method developed, entitled « Ecological Analysis of Law » is intended to be applied in other areas of law in order to assess the efficiency of each rule with regard to the issue of reduction of anthropogenic origin’s harm on the environment.