Browsing by Subject "Privacy, Right of."

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Open Access
Economics of the patent system
(2000) Dilek, Ali Nihat
Since knowledge has “public good” characteristics, it is shown that the price system cannot determine the efficient allocation and production of knowledge. As a result, alternative allocative mechanisms are proposed as solutions to the public goods problem. But knowledge differs from classical public goods. Because of these differences, various arrangements have been proposed to deal with allocational problems in the production of knowledge. One of these arrangements refers to the patent system, where the society is granting private producers of new knowledge exclusive rights to the use of their creations, thereby forming conditions for the existence of markets in intellectual property and enabling the originators to collect fees for the use of their work by others. The thesis is about the economics of patent protection. After considering the economics of knowledge and discussing the history of the patent system and characteristics of the U.S. Patent Law, the thesis studies the international trade dimensions of intellectual property. Thereafter, partial and general equilibrium models of the patent system are developed for the study of the characteristics of the patent system and for the analysis of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement. It is shown that welfare cost of the patent system increases with increases in patent duration, degree of love of variety of the society, and the country size. The North - South patent protection model developed in the thesis, deals with possible effects of patent duration on technological differences between these poles. The findings imply that, technological lag between developed and developing countries is non-decreasing in global patent duration.
Open Access
Exploring the possibilities for the social and the political in the public-private disctinction in Arendt
(2011) Yıldırım, Senem
This dissertation basically asks the question of whether the public- private dichotomy in Arendt‟s theory is an absolute one. This question is a result of the fact that the intricate layers in the distinction between the public and the private in Arendt‟s works has not critically examined within the literature. In answering that question, this dissertation argues that the multi-layered terrain of Arendt‟s political theory makes it possible to point out some conceptual spheres that transcend a particular understanding of the mentioned dichotomy. This kind of inquiring reading enables one to escape the chains of dichotomous thinking and to come up with an alternative theoretical space for thinking Arendt‟s conception of politics. Correspondingly, this dissertation points out the concepts of work and social as possible loopholes that transcend the dichotomous thinking in Arendt‟s theory. Possible implication of pointing out these loopholes is to challenge to the fixed nature of the public-private distinction. This challenge directly effects how one positions the political within the dichotomy. If the political is not observed within the confines of the public-private distinction in every context, it means that it sometimes exists within an in-between space of sociability. The idea of civil society as an associational life in contemporary political experience corresponds to that in-between space. This particular reading points out a contemporary political experience, in which the political and the social co-exist. It also offers an Arendtian perspective to critically reflect on how we experience politics within the space of contemporary civil society.