№ 2 - 2004
Parshin P.B.
Semiotics of Social Institutions and the Disputes about “Intellectual Property”

In his article, the author has made a try to put in order the key conceptual moments of the discussion about “intellectual property” (IP), raging in the past years, on the basis of ideas developed within the framework of the linguistic theory of grammaticalization. On inquiring into the three aspects of the IP institution, namely the formal, the substantive, and the pragmatic ones, he comes to the conclusion that at present, the said institution functions primarily in the pragmatic regime: the formal side of the matter manifestly fails to keep up with the development of the milieu, and the substantive side undergoes ever increasing erosion. The author, furthermore, analyzes particular features of the current stage of the development of the IP institution in Russia, and demonstrates that its nowaday problems are to a large extent related to a severest derangement in the mechanisms of price formation. Solution of the crisis in the sphere in question, in his opinion, is possible only if the triple nature of the IP is taken account of, and, accordingly, should imply sensible (cognitive aspect) fixation (formal aspect) of the results of pragmatic bargaining.