International Intellectual Property Litigation: A Vehicle for Resurgent Comparativist Thought?

Intellectual property lawyers and intellectual property scholars have on the whole had little to say about conflicts matters. And, reciprocating the affections of nonchalance, conflicts scholars have had very little to say about intellectual property law. If one scans the principal intellectual property treatises and casebooks, one largely finds passing discussion of the traditional trinity of private international law (jurisdiction, choice of law, and recognition and enforcement of judgements). The same has been true until recently with conflicts treatises and casebooks; intellectual property is given short shrift (if any mention at all).This essay begins by canvassing some reasons for this lack of engagement between intellectual property and conflicts scholars in the United States.