Purple prose

Here's a bit of good news for all you good folk who keep emailing IPKat team member Jeremy for copies of articles and current intelligence notes published in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice (JIPLP) -- for a limited period of time you can help yourself to free access.  Oxford University Press has just released this note:

Law Journal of the Month for February

In 2011, we will be giving free access to two of our prestigious law journals each month with no obligation to purchase in the future.

We’re very happy to announce that [one of] the two journals of the month for February [is the] Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice.

For full, free access you will simply need to enter a trial code. To set yourself up with access, simply click through to the instructions page. ...

We hope you enjoy your access to the Industrial Law Journal and Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice. Look for an email in early March for access to two more law journals.

Cailin Deery
Law at Oxford Journals

Equally purple in its cover colour is the second edition of Advertising Law and Regulation, edited by Giles Crown, Oliver Bray and Rupert Earle. Published by Bloomsbury Professional, this title represents not only a great deal of diligent research and writing but also a remarkable monument to collaboration between three authors/editors each of whom is a partner in a different firm. Giles Crown heads the Media, Brands & Technology practice at Lewis Silkin LLP, while Oliver Bray and Rupert Earle are partners in Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP and Bates Wells & Braithwaite LLP respectively. The book's tripartite structure reflects this: Oliver Bray leads his firm's team in tackling what are termed "General Legal Areas" -- essentially those areas of law which affect advertising while not being specifically aimed at it; Giles Crown's squad of Lewis-Silkinites and friends (mainly barristers) then tackle legal rules that are firmly fixed on to advertising. Rupert Earle, bravely writing without a team behind him, then addresses the one subject ('Regulatory bodies') which most annoys this reviewer -- partly because much of it is so amorphous and wishy-washy and partly because it draws on areas like judicial review which seem to have been largely invented after he studied law and which therefore seem more threatening to him than they might to a legal neophyte. This third section is however impressive in its lucidity of exposition, despite the somewhat unappealing nature of some of its content.

The publisher's web-blurb is surprisingly modest for a book of these dimensions:

"This invaluable guide focuses specifically on advertising law and the myriad rules controlling the advertising industry. It covers all aspects of the law as it affects advertising, from European legislation and copyright law to libel and obscenity laws. It clearly explains the laws, statutes and self-regulatory codes that govern advertising and there are sections given to the specific issues affecting television, radio and cinema. The new second edition takes on a more practical and user-friendly structure, with updated and expanded coverage of contract law, breach of confidence, copyright and data protection".

It could have mentioned one of the book's selling-points, which is the handy outlines of the structure of advertising regulation in over twenty other jurisdictions.  As marketing continues to become more globalised, the need to check advertising against a plethora of national considerations will only increase.  Another selling point is the bringing together of over 50 pages-worth of laws, codes and practices concerning the advertising of foods, drinks and products containing health claims, an area of law which really show the cumulative effects of decades of ad-hoc legislation and regulation.  A third is the treatment of prize draws, lotteries and competitions -- one of those areas in which it would be good if the public as well as business knew a little more about what is permitted and what is not.

In conclusion, this is an excellent work of reference and the many souls who contributed to it should be thanked for their effort.

Bibliographic details: hardcover, lxv + 980 pages. ISBN: 978 1 84592 451 5. UK price £125. Web page here.

A new edition -- it will be the tenth -- of the Butterworths Intellectual Property Law Handbook, for which IPKat team member Jeremy is Consultant Editor, is now under preparation and the closing date for him to hand in all his suggested additions, subtractions and revisions of the content is 1 May 2011.

Although Jeremy is increasingly committed to the electronic media and, when his current commitments expire he will be writing only for online consumption, he is happy to assist in the continued publication of this somewhat quaint package of paper content.  The best way to use it is to personalise it: apparently this means that you have to put repositionable adhesive notelets in your favourite pages, highlight bits of statute law with garishly coloured markers and to annotate the text with your own comments and cross-references. That way, it gets so personalised that no-one even wants to steal it.  And, by the time it falls apart, there's a new edition on its way ...

If any reader who uses this work wants to make any suggestions concerning its content or indeed its organisation and format, please email Jeremy here and let him know, using the subject line "Handbook".   The book's current website is here and the current list of contents, in Word format, is here.