Something to read this summer II

Advanced Introduction To Cultural Economics is the latest opus, though not a magnum one, from Ruth Towse. Ruth is Professor of Economics of Creative Industries at Bournemouth University's CIPPM, UK as well as a CREATe Fellow in Cultural Economics at the University of Glasgow. The publisher (once again Edward Elgar Publishing) explains the genre of its Advanced Introductions as follows:

"Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by some of the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas".

Ruth's volume is nothing if not concise, packing years of experience, thought, commitment and academic rigour into just over 133 pages of narrative. Her survey of funding issues relating to culture and arts, naturally embracing the role played by copyright, is also a most appropriate academic monument to the memory of her late husband, Mark Blaug, whose own work is cited and whose thoughts are reflected in this tome.  Text without footnotes (the chapters have end-notes) can pass all too swiftly across the reader's line of vision, and the reader may sometimes fail to distinguish a broad generalisation from a carefully-phrased summation, but this is an introduction that should not be rushed if one is to extract its full benefit.

Bibliographic data: x + 146 pages. Hardback ISBN 978 1 78195 489 8, Paperback ISBN  978 1 78195 490 4, ebook ISBN 978 1 78195 491 1. Prices: hardback $99.95 (online from the publisher $89.96), paperback $24.95 (online $19.96). Rupture factor: not in the slightest. Book's web page here.

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Intellectual Property and the Internet: A Global Guide to Protecting Intellectual Property Online is a compilation published by Globe Law & Business and put together by consulting editor Neville Cordell (Allen & Overy LLP).  The genre is well-known, being a sort of painting-by-numbers for legal practitioners: chapters are solicited from a number of national contributors on the basis that their paragraph numberings are taken from the same template. Thus, for each of the 19 chapters, the reader can by the simple expedient of consulting the same paragraph number, obtain information from that jurisdiction on the same subject.  While this facilitates comparative studies and can furnish the reader with a handy check-list, this Kat has to say that he has often come into possession of books organised on this scheme but has hardly ever found them useful. In fairness he should add that this may be because he is not a legal practitioner, and books of this nature are probably not directed at him.

This book is described by the publishers as an "exciting new title" which is "essential reading for lawyers, in-house counsel, media and business professionals who must deal with the challenges of managing digital intellectual property and wish to understand how best to protect such works from infringement internationally".  That's a big claim.  Given the amount of literature that has been published in this field of late, whether by commercial publishers, law firms or contributors to the social media, this title must compete with a lot of other works for the reader's attention and, with the greatest of respect to the person who composed that description, this Kat wonders whether the word "exciting" now bears a meaning with which he is not a little unfamiliar.

Bibliographic data: Hardback. 484 pages. Price: £130. ISBN: 9781905783953. Rupture factor: medium. Book's web page here.

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Luci e ombre del nuovo sistema UE di tutela brevettuale (subtitled "The EU Patent Protection. Lights and Shades of the New System") edited by Katfriend Costanza Honorati and published by G. Giappichelli Editore, Turin, Italy.

This book is largely in Italian, though this Kat has detected three chapters that are definitely in English.  It arises from a conference held in Milano-Bicocca back in September of last year, which focused on the new EU patent system, covering both the unitary patent and the Unified Patent Court.  Given its high Italian content, this Kat is not going to attempt to review it himself: he is passing it on to better more qualified. Meanwhile he thought it would be a good idea to draw it to the attention of readers, who may wish to purchase it ahead of the review.

Bibliographic data: Paperback. x + 283 pages. Rupture factor: low. Publishers' website here.