Bits and pieces

Here comes the May issue ...

The printed version of the May 2011 issue of JIPLP was dispatched last week and subscribers should be receiving their copies imminently if they have not already done so. Don't forget -- the "real" subscription to JIPLP is to the online version, which appears several weeks ahead of the print version and which has a conveniently searchable archive and lots of other attractions.

Earlier experiments
in delivering JIPLP
by phone were bound
to fail.

On the subject of other attractions, we've already mentioned that JIPLP will soon be available in a mobile-enabled format. But there's more to come. Later this month JIPLP will be trialling a new cross-linking software which will, if I've understood the proposition correctly, discreetly draw the reader's attention to other JPLP articles, current intelligence notes and material which the reader might not know about. This can save time, effort and stress by, for example, alerting a reader to the existence of another article which discusses the same topic while reaching a different conclusion, or which reveals the existence of a later piece that updates the content of an earlier one. More details will be provided in due course.

The May 2012 issue of JIPLP (the "INTA Special", since extra copies are distributed at the annual International Trademark Meeting) will carry a special focus on the protection and exploitation of geographical indications. This is very much a hot topic, not just in terms of whether trade mark protection or sui generis regulation is the best approach but also in terms of developing countries reclaiming terms that have become generic or descriptive in other markets and with regard to the current proliferation of bilateral and plurilateral treaties that impose requirements for their protection.  If you have a specific interest or expertise in this area and would like to suggest a specific topic which like to see covered or would like to volunteer to write on such a topic, it would be helpful to know as early as possible.  To express an interest, please email me here with the subject line "JIPLP GI issue".  Note, though: JIPLP only wishes to receive submissions from authors with some particular insight which they can add to the knowledge of the journal's readership.  Please do not offer student dissertations and essays which do no more than summarise existing law and policy, drawing on well-known materials and secondary sources.