Book excerpt: The establishment of Intellectual Property Rights is of utmost importance for the functioning of the market mechanism in a modern economy based more and more on trade in services and software products. Most Central and Eastern European Countries already dispose on systems of Intellectual Property Rights protection. The law enforcement mechanism in a series of countries, however, must still be strengthened. In one section of the book, the authors give an overview on the institutionalisation of Intellectual Property Rights in Central and Eastern Europe and in some successor states of the former Soviet Union with special regard to Russia. Moreover, Intellectual Property Rights systems in the United States and Western Europe are compared and the rules of WTO were taken under consideration in order to find out their potential for fostering (or hampering) the central and eastern European process of transition. Finally, a deliberation on the historical grounds and theoretical foundations of individual and common property rights with regard to economic and technological innovation is included into the collection. The volume gives a comprehensive overview on the state of Intellectual Property Rights institutionalisation in the course of the process of transition in Central and Eastern Europe.