INTERNATIONAL SPORTS LAW REVIEW; COMMONS DEBATE ON GOWERS

International Sports Law Review

The IPKat has been perusing issue 2/2006 of Sweet & Maxwell's quarterly International Sports Law Review. It's not a title that is known for its IP content, tending to deal with issues such as regulation of various sports, liablity for sport-related injuries and the like. This issue, however, contains a review by Pauline Dore (Lewis Silkin) of the draconian measures which are intended to combat the harmless pleasures of ambush marketing in the London Olympics in 2012. There's also a nice piece on the battle between the French government and the European Commission over whether French football clubs should be allowed to raise public finance, by Patricia Edwards (Calleja Consulting).

Ambush marketing: a lexicographer speaks


Gowers debate

The IPKat thanks Joseph Savirimuthu for drawing his attention to a debate last week in the House of Commons on the forthcoming report of the Gowers Review on intellectual property.

Right: Parliamentarians grapple with the subtleties of intellectual property law

Readers can draw their own conclusions, but the IPKat thinks this is going to be a big build-up that will lead to very little, given (i) the propensity of lobbyists and special interest groups to cancel one another out and (ii) the reality that almost all IP reform initiatives today must either come from the European Commission or receive its blessing. Still, Merpel says, anything that gets IP on to the pages of the national press is welcome - especially if it means that journalists will finally learn that you can't patent a trade mark.