The newest NYU School of Law journal recently published its first issue, but it can’t be found on any library shelf. The biannual Journal of Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law, which covers the law of art, entertainment, intellectual property, Internet, sports, and technology, is the Law School’s first online-only journal.
As a 1L, editor-in-chief Nicole Nussbaum ’12 joined the staff of JIPEL’s first incarnation, the IP and Entertainment Law Ledger, an online publication started by the Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law Society that served essentially as an academic blog. After becoming editor-in-chief of the Ledger last year, Nussbaum and her colleagues worked to win official journal status as the publication transformed into JIPEL. With a new minimal-aesthetic office in D’Agostino Hall, a virtual computer lab the editors can access from anywhere, and a cleanly designed website that allows readers to comment on articles available as both PDFs and e-books, JIPEL strives to promote new scholarship and spark a continuing intellectual conversation. The articles it publishes are often briefer than those found in traditional journals, making the ideas accessible to a broader audience.
Nussbaum recently voiced to the Commentator her enthusiasm for producing a new kind of journal covering a rapidly evolving area of the law: “It’s exciting to be going into a field where there’s so much that still needs to be figured out.”
The Winter 2011 issue contains articles considering the ramifications of a 1918 Supreme Court decision for today’s online news aggregators, legal confusion regarding the patenting of genetic diagnostic tests, and attempts by trademark owners to protect their brands from certain social associations that they find undesirable. Professors Amy Adler and Barton Beebe serve as the journal’s advisers.
Posted on March 16, 2012