Latest JIPLP - and a new kid on the block

The March 2007 issue of Oxford University Press's glossy quality IP monthly Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice is now hitting the streets. Features include

* Roya Ghafele, who works for WIPO but speaks for herself, discusses what trade mark applicants actually say about the Madrid System and contrasts it with the official view (abstract here);

* "Patents for perpetual motion machines", a delightful, practical but whimsical view of the age-old quest to patent the impossible, in the light of some dramatic recent case law, by Chris Wadlow of the University of East Anglia (abstract here);

* Richard Howson, "Points and prizes, or how to play your cards right at the European Patent Office" - a sharp insight on how users of the EPO can use the points system for the evaluation of examiners for their own benefit (abstract here);

* The IPKat's Polish blogger-friend Tomasz Rychlicki, currently in Chicago, reviews a recent Polish Supreme Court case on how to calculate damages for trade mark infringement (abstract here).

Details of full contents of this issue here
Most popular articles in JIPLP so far here
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A couple of weeks ago the IPKat stumbled across the first issue of a new quarterly journal, the Bloomberg European Business Law Journal. It's a heavy read, written for serious thinkers, and the first issue carries two IP contributions:

* "Is Europe in a Mess Over Patents for Business Methods and Software?", asks Simmons & Simmons partner Jeremy Morton. This is really more of an extended editorial than a short article, taking a pretty accurate shot at a fast-moving subject - though Merpel says you can probably guess from the title what the author's conclusion is, since no-one bothers writing about subjects that aren't in a mess ...;

* "Creating Computer Games Under German Law", by academician Georgios Zagouras and Thomas Koerber,a lawyer in the Frankfurt office of international law firm Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw, an article that suggests to this reader at any rate that there is quite a good case to be argued for creating your computer games in a country that is a little less legally rigorous than Germany.

The accompanying promotional letter from Kirsten Lapham states: "We hope you come to think of it as an indispensable resource that enables you to better serve your clients and your company". No, says the IPKat, however good it is, it's never going to be indispensable if it only comes out four times a year ...