Latest JIPLP

Still ahead of its cover date, the June 2008 issue of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law (JIPLP), published monthly by Oxford University Press, is now being rammed into letterboxes across the civilised world. In the Editorial, "Paying for the privilege", IPKat team blogger Jeremy discusses the cost of IP litigation, making reference to the vast expense (though cheap at the price) incurred by BlackBerry-maker RIM in preserving its right to carry on making money. He writes:

"... A business can make a ‘yes or no’ decision as to whether to enter a new market, outsource a manufacturing process, or invest in a new IT system—but it cannot make a ‘yes or no’ choice as to whether to be involved in an IP suit unless it can safely say that it is incapable of being at the wrong end of one.

It is sometimes erroneously thought that any business can live within its means. With unlimited resources, it can pay for the highest level of legal representation whereas the poorer, smaller players who must count their pence can engage the expertise of humbler law firms. But this is only half the picture. Depending on the jurisdiction and the nature of the infringement, an unsuccessful small litigant may be ordered to pay all, or at least the lion's share, of the costs of the more asset-wealthy foe which has sued him and won...."

Other features in this issue include

* "Legal questions about illegal art" by Polish fellow blogger and legal scholar Tomasz Rychlicki (Patpol, Warsaw), this being a probing piece on copyright issues involving graffiti;

* the Australian duo of Andrew F. Christie and Fiona Rotstein, in "Duration of patent protection: does one size fit all?", tackle the real issues that underlie the determination of how long a patent should last, throwing up a quite surprising answer;

* David C. Berry, of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, reviews US
Supreme Court practice regarding declaratory judgment jurisdiction in the light of its recent MedImmune decision;

* Kamal Preet, from the Franklin Pierce Law Center, argues that America needs European-style 'fashion police'.

Read the editorial to this issue in full, plus all the editorials of the past twelve months, here
Full contents of this issue here
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