Mr Justice Brian McCracken, in his foreword to the 1997 first edition of this work, posited that there might be a prima facie case for professional negligence against any solicitor, barrister, patent or trademark agent who did not have this book in their library. High praise indeed, and it neatly illustrates the place this book has among specialists in this growing area of law.
The law in this area (and the number of practitioners in it in this jurisdiction) has greatly expanded since the first edition. The main copyright legislation in Ireland in 1997 was the Copyright Act, 1963, but this has now been replaced by the gargantuan Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000, which runs to over 370 sections. The Industrial Designs Act, 2001 also came into force since the last edition, and this is an increasingly commonly used form of protection for clients whose intellectual property does not easily fit into the more traditional categories under Irish law. Ireland has also joined the Madrid protocol, adding to the methods of trademark registration available to Irish clients. All of these new developments are treated in the second edition.
Domain names and the issues that arise with their registration are dealt with in an introductory chapter to trademark law. The dispute resolution procedure introduced by the not-for-profit organisation ICANN for dealing with them is comprehensively examined. It has been successfully (and relatively inexpensively) used by many Irish companies to evict so-called ‘cyber squatters’ from web addresses that are either similar or confusingly similar to their trademarked or used name.
Another topical area this edition gives more space to is the droit de suite that will shortly form part of Irish law. This law, a concept originally taken from French law, will ensure that an artist (or his estate) will have the right to a percentage of re-sale profits from his paintings as his or her reputation (and the price of his or her work) increases. The right would remain for as long as the work was in copyright. Many Irish auction houses and galleries have opposed the introduction of this law on the basis that, as sales outside the EU are not captured by it, it may mean a great deal of Irish art will be sold out of New York to avoid it. Interestingly, a similar right exists in Californian law under its Resale Royalties Act 1977. It was widely hoped (by artists, if not by galleries) that a US-wide federal law would follow, but this has not happened.
Click here to read the rest of this review