Book reviews edited by Chris Taylor : Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights: A Concise Guide for Businesses, Innovative and Creative Individuals

Citation

Van Hoorebeek, M. (2013), "Book reviews edited by Chris Taylor : Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights: A Concise Guide for Businesses, Innovative and Creative Individuals", International Journal of Law and Management, Vol. 55 No. 3, pp. 249-250. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542431311327664

I am probably as time pressed as the next person and for books relating to work I usually need to check an area and to do this I want to find the piece of information I want quickly. After the first ten pages I was fully prepared to dislike this book, both in regard to the self‐aware confessional style used by the author (I do not need to know how hard a book was to write), but also the use of lengthy scenarios to illustrate the various principles relating to the enforcement of intellectual property rights. It can make the process of finding the required information a lengthy process. As mentioned earlier the author outlined in one of the early chapters that “This book has been a real pain to write.” Yes and I thought it might turn out to be a real pain to read […] BUT […].

For all that, the book stands up; the author has taken a scenario approach to a significant proportion of the content and for the content the book delivers it is an appropriate method and ensures that the material has a wholly practical context for the reader to experience. The time taken to pitch the book has been, for the most part, well spent and enables the defined readership to be provided with an alternative to the more traditional academic textbook type offering on the market.

As with all books the value lies not in the writing but in the interpretation, absorption and subsequent application by the reader, and the scenarios that are presented are diverse enough (influenced no doubt by the authors professional expertise in this area) to provide a full discussion and analysis of the area. The areas outlined in the contents section indicate just how practical this book is: Dispute Resolution Options, So you want to sue somebody, What happens if neither side gives in, How to prepare your case, What happens on the big day. The chapters are uniformly good and are supplemented for the reader who is new to this area by a well framed glossary of terms used in both intellectual property and in litigation. The introduction may be a little basic for some readers; however it does set the scene for those new to this area very well indeed and has the potential to prevent the “businesses, innovative and creative individuals” mentioned in the title to prevent some costly intellectual property mistakes being made.

Yes it can be a book that takes some time to read and get to grips with the style used, and yes it does make it difficult at times to quickly find information that the reader needs. But this offering is unique in the presentation of the content and this does differentiate it from many of the other book that relate to intellectual property that are currently in the market place. In the final analysis the book is perhaps a touch self‐aware, but this book hangs together rather well and distinguishes itself by the approach the author takes. The author outlines the hope that “this will not be the last edition of this little guide and I hope that the next one will be very much better”; the book is good as it is and I will certainly look forward to the next edition.

Mark Van Hoorebeek

Bradford University Law School, Bradford, UK