TY - JOUR
AU1 - Hilty, Reto, M
AU2 - Drexl,, Josef
AB - This first issue of ‘GRUR International: Journal of European and International IP Law’ marks the beginning of an English law journal on intellectual property that is new and yet can build on a history of almost 70 years. When in 1952 the first issue of the ‘Auslands- und internationaler Teil von Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht’ was published, the legal fields it covered – industrial property (Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz) and copyright (Urheberrecht) – were still the territory of a very few specialists. The association ‘Deutsche Vereinigung für Gewerblichen Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht (GRUR e.V.)’, founded in 1891, had since that year already been publishing a journal with a similar concept, albeit with a focus on national legal developments. The decision to also establish a parallel journal devoted to questions of foreign and international IP law was at that time exceptionally visionary, besides being unique worldwide. And yet the timing was ideal: international IP law was in motion, specifically with regard to adjustments to the Berne Convention and the Paris Convention, and five years after the journal’s inception the Treaties of Rome were concluded, the starting point of European integration which since then have provided the framework for a steady intensification of harmonization of IP law until today. Then came 1965, the year the Max Planck Society decided to found the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law. Until then the journal had been published by the ‘Institut für Ausländisches und Internationales Patent, Marken- und Urheberrecht’ of the University of Munich, whose director, Eugen Ulmer, one of the journal’s editors, was simultaneously appointed as founding director of the new MPI. In 1967 the academic responsibility for the journal, now called ‘GRUR Internationaler Teil’ or ‘GRUR Int’ for short, was transferred to the MPI. Thus began a fruitful collaboration between the MPI and GRUR e.V. From the perspective of the still fledgling, internationally oriented GRUR Int, the MPI was the ideal partner, as its research was oriented in large part towards legal developments outside Germany. With this arrangement, the journal was in an ideal position, not only to track the ever more significant international and European legal developments from a scholarly perspective, but also to make a name for itself among experts throughout the world. At that time, not only were the German legal sciences among the key pacesetters in the foreign and international development of IP law. It was also customary for legal scholars in countries devoted to the continental European tradition to learn the German language and for academic publications to be written in German. Given this fact, it was a matter of course that GRUR Int was published exclusively in German. Though this has changed over the decades, with more and more contributions being published in English – and especially court decisions in English as their original language – the structural basis remained German, which made it ever more difficult, in a world in which English was becoming established as the lingua franca, for the journal to take a leading role, and more importantly, to reach the new generation of legal scholars. After careful consideration, the GRUR e.V. and the MPI have therefore decided to give the journal a new foundation, which means in particular that it will be published entirely in English. This change goes hand in hand with the decision to work with a British publisher, Oxford University Press (OUP), for distribution on the world market, while our long-term partner Verlag C.H. Beck will continue to be responsible for the German-language market. As a consequence of the change to English, ‘GRUR International: Journal of European and International IP Law’, as the journal will be known from now on, will be competing in a new setting, considering how, in the almost seven decades since its first issue appeared, the field of IP law – among others – has rapidly become a mainstay of legal scholarship and practice with great economic significance. This field has seen a great many journals come into being alongside former GRUR Int, with a wide variety of profiles. Naturally, many of these IP journals are – as in every other field of law – oriented toward the national law of the country in which they are published, and therefore their contents are in the language of the respective country. This is the case in Europe just as in Latin America, but also in a great number of Asian states whose importance is expanding rapidly. It is also true that authors from those countries can choose from a great number of English-language IP journals in which to publish. More often than not, the Anglo-American legal system is at the center of these journals’ focus – according to the place of publication, whether in the USA, the UK, or even Australia, India or other Commonwealth states. This puts such contributions in a rather isolated position, and does not really generate an academic debate. This is where the new GRUR International comes into play. Indeed, while it welcomes all contributions on developments of IP law with relevance to scholarship and practice, it will focus on analyses and discussions from countries whose authors do not share a mother tongue, but have to rely on English to communicate with each other. First and foremost this principle applies to court decisions. One important aim of the new GRUR International will be to translate important case law into English, providing analysis so as to facilitate the same kind of discourse between civil law countries that has always arisen spontaneously and is taken for granted in the common law countries. The significance of this exchange cannot be overestimated, for the jurisdictions at stake are immense, and their importance is increasing – the Chinese, Japanese or Korean jurisdictions may spring to mind, but others such as Brazil or other Latin American states are no less relevant. The capacity to maintain the journal’s current level of academic quality and also take a leading position in the market for English-language journals is by no means a given when we take this step. These priorities will be guaranteed by means of, on the one hand, a professional, independent peer review of all scholarly articles. On the other hand, the global correspondents’ network is to be expanded, with the correspondents more closely involved, so as to be able to report on the most important developments in the legal systems at the center of focus. One decisive factor in achieving these goals will be the quality of the translation of original decisions from other languages. In this respect the long partnership of GRUR e.V. with the MPI will be of special significance: only with substantial support from GRUR e.V. will it even be possible to bear the high costs ensuing in the first few years. All partners – including and especially OUP – are in agreement about the potential of the journal, however, and are therefore confident that the new GRUR International will see an increase in distribution that will in due course make it self-sustaining. Confidence in the potential of the new and reconceived GRUR International is also justified in view of the current geopolitical shifts, which will result in new heavyweights and new alliances, where economic development will be a key determinant of power. One prime driver of such developments are the forces for innovation within a country or a region. On the other hand, there also need to be functioning competitive structures in place. Emerging economies have long since grasped the significance of these factors, and in many cases they are taking pains to establish their legal framework structures accordingly. And yet, the focus is not necessarily on one country exclusively. Western states learned very early on that comparable levels of protection must also govern in other countries in order for fair conditions for trade to flourish around the world. While the over 100-year development of international IP law that took place in phases starting in the late 19th century bears witness to this lesson, today it is mostly bi- and multilateral agreements that are used to safeguard the interests of domestic industries in a global market. This strategy is by no means pursued by only the traditional industrialized nations, meanwhile. China’s ‘Belt and the Road’ initiative for instance takes a comparable path. While this plan ostensibly aims primarily at investments in infrastructure projects, one of its important goals is the development of a legal order within the respective states that is compatible with China’s own. That these currently observable developments are shaped by very different value systems, and that divergent interests can also often be in play, is self-evident. To understand these interests, and to be able to recognize and analyze divergent positions, the discourse between the individual countries is of fundamental importance. The aim of GRUR International is to create an independent platform for debate that is neutral in terms of both content and language. In this regard, the very fact that there is no one equally right and suitable path for all economies prevents a scholarly journal from pursuing its own agenda in the first place. The one thing GRUR International hopes to pursue is mutual understanding, for example regarding certain special features of certain emerging economies. The project will be judged a success when readers are able to see as objectively as possible what conditions are like outside their own system. © Published by OUP and CH Beck on behalf of GRUR e.V. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com and GrurInt@ip.mpg.de This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
TI - The New GRUR International
JF - GRUR International: Journal of European and International IP Law
DO - 10.1093/grurint/ikz012
DA - 2020-01-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/the-new-grur-international-mGd2QzjRDt
SP - 1
EP - 2
VL - 69
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -