An Approach of Dynamic Jurisprudence to Analysis of the Nature of Intellectual Property Rights and its Legitimacy

It has been more than a century since the laws and conventions related to legalization of intellectual property rights have been passed. Though in practice various national and international laws have been made for protection of intellectual property rights and many reasons and arguments have been brought into focus to establish the legitimacy of such laws, yet many countries still have other and different approaches towards intellectual property rights and there is still controversy between experts of law on the legitimacy and significance of such laws. Some experts argue strongly in their defense, while others undermine their legitimacy altogether. Naturally, Islamic law addresses the issue with its own set of principles and jurisprudence tools and forms its own perspective about the legitimacy of intellectual property rights protection. This paper first defines this type of law and the grounds for its emergence, and then proceeds to its legitimacy and significance of protecting intellectual property rights, particularly in the fields of copyright and patent, from the viewpoint of western law experts in a summarized manner. The main topic of the paper is providing a jurisprudent analysis of the concept and naturel of intellectual right. The paper first discusses the issue from viewpoints of Islamic jurists and then reviews the approach of Islamic law to the subject at hand. Because of the uniform international laws and the interlinks of global communities encompassing all sorts of scientific, cultural, commercial and industrial exchanges and interactions, the perspective and the scientific approach of Islamic law towards the rights created in such exchanges and interactions are of utmost significance. The paper eventually tackles the theoretical issues and practical implications of the topic.