More books for review

JIPLP has received a further selection of books for review.  As usual, prospective reviewers who feel that they have a particular interest that will qualify them to review one of these books are asked to email Sarah Harris at sarah.harris@oup.com and let her know, by close of play on Monday 18 February. Prospective reviewers who are not yet known to the journal should attach a CV or give some indication as to their IP background and experience.

These are the books on offer:

Nonprofit Organizations And The Intellectual Commons

Author: Jyh-An Lee

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Price £65 (online from the publisher £58.50)

Over the past twenty years, a number of nonprofit organizations (NPOs), such as Creative Commons, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Free Software Foundation have laid essential building blocks for intellectual-commons as a social movement. Through a detailed description of these NPOs and a series of in-depth interviews with their officials, this book demonstrates that NPOs have provided the social structures that are necessary to support the production of intellectual commons. 

By illustrating NPOs’ role in shaping the commons realm, this book provides a new lens through which to understand the intellectual-commons environment. Protecting intellectual commons has been one of the most important goals of recent innovation and information policies. This book focuses on the NPOs that occupy an increasingly critical and visible position in the intellectual-commons environment in recent years.

Further information concerning this title can be obtained here

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Intellectual Property, Human Rights And Competition: Access to Essential Innovation and Technology

Author: Abbe E.L. Brown
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Price: £75 (online from the publisher £67.50)

This detailed book explores the relationship between intellectual property, competition and human rights. It considers the extent to which they can and must be combined by decision makers, and how this approach can foster innovation in key areas for society – such as pharmaceutical drugs, communications software and technology to combat climate change. 

The author argues that these three legal fields are strongly interrelated and that they can be used to identify essential technologies. She demonstrates that in some cases, combining the fields can deliver new bases for wider access to be provided to technologies. The solutions developed are strongly based on existing laws, with a focus on the UK and the EU and the structures of existing forms of dispute resolution, including the European Court of Human Rights and the dispute settlement bodies of the World Trade Organization. The final chapters also suggest opportunities for further engagement at international policy and activist level, new approaches to IP and its treaties, and wider adoption of the proposals.

Further information concerning this title can be obtained here

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The Future Of The Patent System

Editor: Ryo Shimanami

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Price: £95 (online from the publisher £85.50)

In a rapidly changing world, the underlying philosophies, the rationale and the appropriateness of patent law have come under question. In this insightful collection, the authors undertake a careful examination of existing patent systems and their prospects for the future. Scholars and practitioners from Japan, the US, Europe, India, Brazil and China give detailed analyses of current and likely future problems with their respective systems, and outline possible responses to them.

Further information concerning this title can be obtained here

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Intellectual Property At The Crossroads Of Trade

Editor: Jan Rosén

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Price: £90 (online from the publisher £81)

Intellectual Property Law at the Crossroads of Trade focuses on the elements of intellectual property that impact on trade and competition.

The book comprises thoughtful contributions on varying commercial aspects of IP, from parallel imports of pharmaceuticals to exhaustion of rights, and from trade in goods of cultural heritage to regulation of goods in transit. There is detailed discussion of licensing, including cross-border elements, online licensing, and the potential for harmonisation in Europe. This precedes a multi-layered analysis of the Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

Further information concerning this title can be obtained here

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The following book is again on offer, since the original reviewer was unable to complete the review

Overlapping Intellectual Property Rights

Editors: Neil Wilkof and Shamnad Basheer

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Price: £125

Providing a comprehensive and systematic commentary on the nature of overlapping Intellectual Property rights and their place in practice, this book is a major contribution to the way that IP is understood. IP rights are mostly studied in isolation, yet in practice each of the legal categories created to protect IP rights will usually only provide partial legal coverage of the broader context in which such rights are actually created, used, and enforced. Consequently, often multiple IP rights may overlap, in whole or in part, with respect to the same underlying subject matter. Some patterns, for instance, in addition to being protected from copying under the design rights regime, may also be distinctive enough to warrant trade mark protection. 

Each chapter addresses a discrete pair of IP rights and is written by a specialist in that area. Facilitating an understanding of how and when those rights may be encountered in practice, each chapter is introduced by a hypothetical situation setting out the overlap discussed in the chapter. The conceptual and practical issues arising from this situation are then discussed, providing practitioners with a full understanding of the overlap.

Further information concerning this title can be obtained here