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With the month of June now in its second phase, an opportunity was missed to announce the relatively early publication of this month's issue of Oxford University Press's monthly Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice - but the June issue is no less welcome for that. Among the choicest features in this issue are the following:

* "If the kids are united" by Florian Koempel - an original and offbeat examination of digital rights management issues as they affect collecting societies, by the Legal Counsel to British Music Industry (abstract here);

* "The Trilateral Cooperation" by seasoned patent expert Philip Grubb, reviewing the peaks and troughs of attempts by the US, Japanese and European Patent Offices to work more efficiently together (abstract here);

* "Uneasy détente: strengthening the market's adaptation of the GNU General Public License in common law jurisdictions" by Douglas A. Hass (ImageStream Internet Solutions", a sharp and critical analysis of the legal and commercial issues that beset the further evolution of the GPL (abstract here; gnu, right);

* "Warranties and indemnities in contracts: protecting and exploiting IP" by Field Fisher Waterhouse lawyers Belinda Doshi and Sarah Thomson, in which the authors look at pitfalls and principles of protective obligations and consider whether they can ever serve as an adequate alternative to proper due diligence (abstract here).

Full contents of this issue here
Read this month's editorial (on what harmonisation really means in practice) - and indeed the past year's editorials - here
Instructions for authors here; free sample online or on paper here; subscribe here


Giving its sensual blend of aesthetic and intellectual pleasure as usual, the June/July 2007 issue of Intellectual Asset Management, published bimonthly by Globe White Page, leads with a striking cover story, "Quake or tremor?", on the changing face of patent monetarisation in the United States, by Cameron Gray (who works in the asset management practice of flavour-of-the-month IP auctioneers Ocean Tomo). Reviewing recent US court decisions and IP/competition developments, this feature (which is actually entitled "Clearing the Underbrush") more or less gives the impression that all changes are for the best if you're buying or lending on IP as assets, either because the changes are actually good or - even if their benefit is questionable - because they are colouring in areas of former doubt and turning them into areas of greater predictability.

Also worth a read is another changeling, listed in the contents as "Banking on Britney" - which by the time you get to it is called "Money and Mayhem" by IAM's own Victoria Slind-Flor on what can go wrong with celebrity endorsements and brand extensions.

Contents of current issue here