Preface Our journey to the ultimate destination of publication of this book involved several significant steps. First of all, Ann and John enthusiastically accepted Marilyn's invitation to discuss her concept of a legal inter-disciplinary approach to business innovation; and the genesis of this book arose from our plan for collaborative work on business innovation and law, starting with a conference. Next, we received the support of the Faculty of Law, Monash University in the form of a

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... ce grant and so were able to start planning the conference. Then, as indicated in our chapter 1, this conference, held over three days in May 2011, provided the springboard for this book, enabling the authors to come together to present their papers on business innovation and further discuss the areas from the inter-disciplinary perspectives of intellectual property, labour and employment law and competition and corporate laws. Finally, we were very pleased to secure a book contract with Edward Elgar Publishing. A book such as this, built upon and substantially developed from a diverse and multi-disciplinary range of papers presented at an international conference, requires whole-hearted commitment and support from many people. We wish to record our gratitude to those people and a number of organisations involved in the publication of this book. We thank the Faculty of Law, Monash University for its financial support for the conference as well as the small research grant we were awarded to assist with editing. Our marketing and finance sections provided expert assistance for essential aspects of the conference. We are grateful to our conference administrator, Dr Ellen Berah of The Conference Organiser, for her efficient and enthusiastic administration of the conference and for being on the ground at the