"Generations of law students, lawyers, scholars, judges, and other legal professionals have relied on The Bluebook's unique system of citation in their writing. In a diverse and rapidly changing legal profession, The Bluebook continues to provide a systematic method by which members of the profession communicate important information to one another about the sources and legal authorities upon which they rely in their work".Users of the Bluebook will find the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice cited as “J. Intell. Prop. L. & Pract.” -- which conforms to the Bluebook's system. But that's not the form of citation which this journal employs. Since its inception in 2005 the journal has been abbreviated to the letters "JIPLP", generally pronounced "jip-lip". JIPLP is not the only journal that does not refer to itself by reference to the Bluebook methodology. The European Intellectual Property Review prefers EIPR to "Eur. Intell. Prop. Rev." and the International Trademark Association's Trademark Reporter, which recently celebrated its centenary, cites itself as TMR, not “Trademark Rep.”
While there is much to be said for the adoption of a standard form of citation, there is also a good deal to be said for respecting the goodwill that has been accrued over the years in which a non-Bluebook form of citation has been used by a journal's readers, publishers, editors and contributors. If you are in doubt as to whether to adopt Bluebook citations or not, it's prudent and simple to check before you create your footnotes.
