Copyright Protection for Perfumes

Abstract:     
In June 2004, the Lancome opinion from the Netherlands held that perfume compositions are copyrightable. The thesis of this paper is that the Dutch Court's approach runs afoul of basic copyright principles. Protecting scents instead would be relatively novel, but hardly radical, and necessary adaptations to copyright law would be modest. The paper nevertheless concludes that, lacking evidence of need, judges should not be quick to expand copyright law and should await legislative action.

[This paper was subsequently published at 45 Idea 19 (2004); an English translation of the Dutch opinion by Annemarie Field, my Dutch daughter-in-law, follows at 31.]

Keywords: Copyright, patent, trade secret, perfume, Dutch

JEL Classifications: K20, K40

Working Paper Series