IP Draughts is delighted to announce that this blog now officially has 1,000 subscribers, in addition to readers who are informed of postings via LinkedIn and some other sites.
Here are some more, useless statistics:
- the blog has been running for a little over 4 years
- there is no paid advertising
- the site is within a gnat’s crotchet of 300,000 “hits” (page views)
- it contains just under 400 articles
- it has nearly 600 published comments
- traffic is currently running at around 10,000 page views per month
- in 2012 we won an American Bar Association award, as a member of its Blawg100 (the only site outside North America to receive this award)
- the most popular article on the blog is about damages not being an adequate remedy in confidentiality agreements. This article has been viewed nearly 18,000 times and continues to be very popular.
The countries with the most readers are the US and the UK; these countries have very similar numbers of page views. Next, but some way behind, come Australia, Canada, India and Singapore, and then a selection of European countries.
As ever, we are keen to hear from readers. Please tell us what you like and don’t like about the site.
Thank you for your continued support.
Mr Pettifog
Mark Anderson
Paul Maclennan
Stephen Brett
Victor Warner
IP Draughts 
When I started my current line of work I was a barrister with lots of experience of court advocacy (including tearing apart contracts), quite a bit of academic law, but I knew nothing about contract drafting. Obviously there are books (including yours) which help, but being a solo practitioner without stacks of precedents to rely on or a team of older, more experienced, lawyers wasn’t easy.
And in particular I really wanted to think about contract drafting. I’ve always applied a lot of thought to what I do.
So it was really wonderful to stumble (via Jeremy as it happens) across IP Draughts. It was just what I wanted. It wasn’t just that there was some really useful material (though I’ve been helped by many things you’ve written) but there was a site where someone really thought hard about contracts in an interesting way. It is now one of my favourite blogs.
When I did my diploma in law, contract drafting really didn’t get much good publicity. It was generally disparaged as being rather lowly an activity, compared with (say) appearing in the Supreme Court. But there are zillions of blogs talking about the latest court decision (most rubbish, though of course there are good ones) but only a teeny number talking about contract drafting.
So please keep up the good work.
Thank you very much, Francis. Your thoughtful comments are greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Jeremy, and thank you for mentioning this blog repeatedly on IPKat. It has helped us to build up the readership.
Dear MarkCongratulations! Best wishes Jeremy
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ipkat
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) Founder Editor, European Trade Mark Reports (ETMR) Intellectual Property Consultant, Olswang LLP Professorial Fellow, Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute Visiting Professor, Magister Lvcentinvs, University of Alicante Blogmeister, IPKat weblog: http://www.ipkat.com