Sharing Access to Intellectual Property through Private Ordering

Private ordering mechanisms, such as contracts or technological measures, have increasingly been used to shift the balance between exclusive property and free access to intellectual creation embedded in all IP regimes. Most surprising is the use of private ordering mechanisms, mainly licensing schemes. This article aims at assessing the nature of norm-making operated by open-access initiatives, as well as its normative sustainability as a project to enlarge the public domain within intellectual property. My conclusion is that public ordering still has a crucial role to play to moderate the expansion of intellectual property and to ensure that intellectual creations remain available to the public and promoted alongside open access strategies