Recent CIPA publications

Known to many as a professional organisation that represents the many and varied interests of patent attorneys, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) is also something of a publisher. The IPKat has just been admiring two of its most recent efforts:

Advice for passing the European Qualifying Examination, by Derek Jackson, Paul Denerley and Nicholas Fox, has been sent free to CIPA members and CIPA Journal subscribers, but costs £10 a copy for mere mortals (plus postage and packaging for those who lurk outside the jurisdiction). If you think that £10 might seem a lot to pay for just 16 pages, remember: it's the quality that counts -- and the text is a good deal longer than Magna Carta, the Gettysburg Address, or the Ten Commandments (the written version, not the film ...).  Merpel adds, the more you pay, the more likely you'll be to read it properly. Anyway, according to the publishers, it's

"A study guide for both students and their tutors. It begins with a brief but very useful list of background reading and then takes each EQE paper in turn and analyses these in a concise but comprehensive plan of attack. All the well known dos and don’ts are there but these essential caveats are no mere repetition: they form the bedrock of the authors’ eminently practical approach to tackling the entire suite of papers. Candidates wanting to maximise their chances of success need to adopt these strong basic guidelines and they are all comprehensively covered here. The text is clear, readable, and above all practical in its approach".

The IPKat found it quite un-put-downable, not least because he cherishes the thought that all the things that candidates have problems with when they're trying to qualify -- clearly flagged by the authors here -- are the same things they are likely to have problems with in later life too. You can order this work here.

A Guide to the EPC 2000: a practitioner's guide to the New Law, a solo effort this time by Nicholas Fox, has now come out in its second edition. The front cover adds the words "Second edition" in a small box at the bottom of the page, but otherwise it looks the same as the first. Hint to CIPA: if the wording on the spine also reads "2nd edition", perverse readers like the IPKat who never throw away their old books if they think they might come in handy for legal research will find it easier to pull the right one off the shelf. 

Having got that minor quibble out of the way, the IPKat has plenty of praise for this book.  The publishers seem to like it too:

"This convenient guide ... aims to help practitioners find their way around the new law [The Kats wonder how long it's going to be regarded as "new".  It seems to have been around for quite a while now]. It contains an extensively annotated and cross-referenced copy of the revised Convention and Implementing Regulations [this is the really good bit, unless you prefer doing it yourself with replaceable adhesive notelets], as well as the Rules Relating to Fees, the Protocol on Jurisdiction and the London Agreement. Articles and their most relevant rules are printed together to enable them to be read in context [this works pretty well too]. Practical commentaries highlight the major changes, illustrating how the articles and rules interact in practice".

This book is a real convenience. Clear print and clearly expressed comments and explanations are commodities one finds too rarely these days, and it's reassuring to find that clarity of expression is alive and well against people who earn a living drafting claims ...  At £30 for non-members, £25 for members, it's good value for money. You can order this book here [The IPKat understands that it's available in French and German too].