IPKAT BOOK OF THE MONTH: AUGUST 2003

This month’s IPKat choice is Valuation and Exploitation of Intellectual Property and Intangible Assets by John Sykes and Kelvin King (emis professional publishing, Welwyn Garden City 2003), 482pp, £95. The authors of this attractive, accessible work are well equipped to assist the reader in comprehending the many issues which arise from IP exploitation and valuation. John Sykes, an experienced solicitor and a partner with Lupton Fawcett, has advised both IP owners and those who invest in them while Kelvin King, a partner in Valuation Consulting, is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable asset valuer. Between them they have made IP valuation a far more accessible subject than it is usually found to be. They have also provided a good introduction to IP exploitation, a subject which has always been accessible in the past but where it is not the legal and technical bits that confound readers so much as the common sense bits.

The book is divided into two segments: two chapters address intellectual property rights management and the understanding of intellectual property rights in general. These chapters are not intended to describe the law so much as to explain how the law affects intellectual property management. For this reason the text mentions the laws which govern not merely the UK but also Germany, the EU, the US, Australia and TRIPs as well as regional and international filing systems. The second segment consists of three far more substantial chapters which deal respectively with intellectual property valuation, due diligence and securitisation.

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Candidates for most valuable copyright work here, here and here