The International Intellectual Property Program (IIPP) at Columbia Law School is a center for interdisciplinary research on issues relating to international aspects of intellectual property law. New methods of distributing and exploiting products present great challenges to intellectual property law. Intellectual property in digital form, which can include movies, books, musical recordings, computer programs, databases and many other kinds of works, can be quickly and easily copied and disseminated. It can be transferred across national boundaries free of physical barriers or customs inspections. Yet intellectual property laws are in large part geographically based, so that creators are increasingly dependent on the intellectual property laws of more than 200 national jurisdictions to protect their rights, and increasingly vulnerable if that protection is inadequate (or inadequately enforced).

The nature of intellectual property protection, and how effectively that protection is enforced, determines the extent and viability of the markets for intellectual property products. Adapting intellectual property laws to respond to the rapidly developing technology is a formidable task.

The IIPP conducts research and hosts lectures and fora on developing international issues relating to intellectual property, aimed at developing new approaches to problems on a global basis. Various aspects of the IIPP are set out in greater detail below.

Research Program

The IIPP has conducted a major study concerning technological protection of copyrighted works and legislation that prohibits circumventing that protection.