Ink and Innovation

A new paper on SSRN (which offers millions of scholarly papers to academics around the world) is about IP and tattoos. It draws on some of Chris’ earlier work on social norms with Dotan Oliar.

Here’s the abstract:

“Intellectual Property Norms in the Tattoo Industry”

AARON PERZANOWSKI, Wayne State University Law School, Notre Dame Law School

Email: perzanowski@gmail.com

This article reports the results of the first qualitative study of the norms surrounding creative production, ownership, and copying in the multi-billion dollar U.S. tattoo industry. Despite the availability of copyright protection, the tattoo industry has largely ignored formal law in resolving disputes over copying and use of original works. Instead, it relies on a complex set of social norms enforced through informal mechanisms. Those norms are a product of both cultural and economic factors that offer broader lessons for intellectual property law and policy.