About the Journal

Mission

The Tulane Journal of Technology & Intellectual Property (JTIP) is a student-edited, subscription-based, scholarly publication of Tulane University Law School. The purpose of JTIP is twofold: (1) to give its student members intensive experience in legal research and writing and (2) to make a significant contribution to the legal community through publishing material of practical and theoretical importance. Because the fields of technology and intellectual property law are by their very nature interdisciplinary fields of study, JTIP examines legal issues that highlight this burgeoning area of law. While publications have certainly included topics such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, the Journal has also featured discussions concerning antitrust, information privacy, computer law, constitutional law, biotechnology, international medicine, contracts, torts, and a vast variety of other policy implications of law and technology in our society.

Membership

JTIP's editorial members are second- and third-year law students who work under the guidance of faculty advisors. JTIP is conveniently available in print; on Westlaw, LexisNexis, and Hein Online; and we are currently working on making JTIP available through other online resources. The journal publishes in print annually in the Spring. Our online publications are comprised solely of student-authored pieces that focus on current developments affecting the law of technology and intellectual property.

History

We trace our history back to 1996, when, under the direction of Professor Glynn S. Lunney, eight concerned students published a four-page bulletin titled “newsTIPS: The Bulletin of the Technology and Intellectual Property Society at Tulane University School of Law.” The bulletin was an effort to highlight the legal challenges created by new technologies in the computer, biotechnology, and genetic engineering industries. As Prof. Lunney noted in that bulletin, intellectual property "is one of the fastest growing sectors of the legal market."

The purpose of the bulletin was to give “interested students a critical opportunity to explore the way in which technology affects our lives, and to consider how the law should address and, if necessary, adapt to emerging technologies.”

By 1999, that bulletin became Tulane’s first online journal. Thus, Vol. 1 and 2 of JTIP offered online scholarly articles, student comments and notes, and current development sections focusing on international intellectual property issues. In 2001, student members (led by then Editor in Chief, Jeffrey K. Dorso) and the publication staff transitioned the journal from an online publication to its current print version. Today, JTIP has over one hundred subscribers across three countries.

JTIP is currently ranked 24th for “science, technology, and computing” print journals. JTIP is growing in other respects as well- for example, the number of times the journal was cited increased over the last two years.

Our Vision and Goals

Become a Leading IP Publication: JTIP's goal is to become a leading publication in the IP field.  To do this we have made a concerted effort to attract renowned authors to publish with our journal. By obtaining articles from the most knowledgeable authors, JTIP hopes to increase its visibility, subscriptions, and citations on Westlaw and LexisNexis.

Discuss Timely Legal Issues in Technology:  JTIP seeks to highlight and analyze issues that are timely and on the cutting edge of technology interface with the law. The law and lawyers must adapt to the myriad ways that advancing technology impacts commerce, intellectual property, and society as a whole. To that end, JTIP will present articles that increase understanding of the most current issues in the fields of technology and intellectual property.

Attract High-Profiled Authors: JTIP is committed to finding and publishing articles from the most prominent legal scholars and practitioners. To that end, JTIP collaborates with Tulane's Center for Intellectual Property and Culture Center in sponsoring symposiums and events in all areas of intellectual property; then, in addition to the speaking engagement, JTIP offers each speaker an opportunity to write for the journal. So far, this arrangement has been very successful. In 2009, the journal co-sponsored the first “Future of Copyright” speaker series, which featured lectures from James Boyle, Graeme Dinwoodie, Peter Jaszi, Mark Rose, Pamela Samuelson, and Diane Zimmerman. And most recently, Volume 14 of JTIP featured articles and interviews from the second “Future of Copyright” speaker series, which included conversations with renowned professors and practitioners: Jane Ginsburg, Jule Sigall, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Kenneth D. Crews, Nina Paley and David Carson.

Recruit Committed Student Leaders:  JTIP’s goal is to attract student leaders who are vested in furthering the study of intellectual property law. Each year, the Executive Board invites few exceptional students from the 2L and 3L classes to play a significant role in editing articles, comments, and notes.  The new members are groomed to lead the journal in their second year of membership. By building strong relationships, we hope that current members will support JTIP activities after their graduation and become future subscribers.  In fact, many former JTIP members do subscribe to the journal and a few former EICs support the journal via donations.

Make Our Web Site More Informative: At JTIP, we work hard to provide an informative—but yet user-friendly—Web site. We recently redesigned and revamped the entire Web site, adding several new features, which we hope will enable us to be more accessible to the academic audience. Our newest development is the addition of student publications on recent events in the areas of technology and intellectual property.