Books

We have written or contributed to several practitioner textbooks, most of which can be found on our Amazon Author Page.

Some of these books include template agreements as well as commentary.  Take a look at the book details on Amazon or on the publisher’s website for further information.

Our main books

Our main books are:

1. Technology Transfer (ed: Anderson, 4^th edition, Bloomsbury, 2020, 1,056 pages).
2. A-Z Guide to Boilerplate and Commercial Clauses (Anderson and Warner, 4^th edition, Bloomsbury, 2017, 695 pages)
3. Drafting and Negotiating Commercial Contracts (Anderson and Warner, 4^th edition, Bloomsbury, 2016, 378 pages)
4. Macdonald’s Exemption Clauses and Unfair Terms (Anderson and Warner, 3rd edition, Bloomsbury, 2022)
5. Execution of Documents (Anderson and Warner, 3^rd edition, Law Society, 2016, 428 pages)
6. Drafting Confidentiality Agreements (Anderson and Warner, 3^rd edition, Law Society, 2015, 212 pages)
7. Drafting Agreements in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries (ed: Anderson, OUP, looseleaf, 2008-2017, c. 1,500 pages)

About the books

Our books are designed for practitioners; some of them have also been used in student teaching. Uniquely, our books and articles discuss certain legal issues that are not addressed elsewhere, or not in depth.

For example, Technology Transfer is the only work that summarises English case law (from the nineteenth century to the present day) on the interpretation of patent licence agreements, explains the provisions of IP statutes that directly affect transactions, considers the impact of traditional property laws on IP transactions (eg the Law of Property Act 1925 and the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1994), and looks in detail at which terms in IP agreements are permissible under EU and UK competition laws.

Although the focus of our interest is IP transactions, many of the topics we cover have a wider application across commercial law. For example, our work examines the legal basis of conventional assumptions that are reflected in the wording of many contracts, eg that describing contractual promises as both representations and warranties provides the beneficiary of those promises with additional legal remedies. We advocate simple, modern drafting in business contracts, though not always the “plain English” version that is used for consumer contracts.

For item 7 above, we hired a full-time research assistant^[1] for over a year to assist us with the preparation of template agreements, and several members of our firm contributed to the book’s analysis of contract, IP, regulatory and other issues. Mainly based on English law, the work also included comments from specialist lawyers^[2] in six other jurisdictions. The commentary describes, among other topics, similarities and differences between the common-law and civil-law treatment of agreements in the life-sciences field. Unusually, it highlights differences in approach between French-based, civil-code systems (eg France and Spain) and German-based, civil-code systems (eg Germany and the Netherlands), eg on the practical effect of the legal principle known as culpa in contrahendo.

A few reviews

Our books have been reviewed many times, including:

On item 1, Rosemary Boyle, a solicitor at the University of Cambridge, reviewing the 2^nd edition in the Cambridge Law Journal, wrote: “It is a remarkable achievement to have brought together so many different strands [of law affecting technology transfer] and sought to provide a coherent guide through the maze. …The book and CD-ROM together form an important tool in the armoury of any lawyer practising in this area.”

On item 2, HH Humphrey Lloyd QC, a former judge of the Technology and Construction Court, reviewing the 2^nd edition in the International Construction Law Review, wrote: “The work’s strength lies in two main features. First …it provides guidance by reference to numerous cases (some of which might well have been overlooked) for the purposes of assisting someone to draft a contract effectively. Secondly, it provides ‘worked examples’… it is very useful and I hope that it will reach a wider audience.”

On item 7, Trevor Cook, for many years a senior IP partner at Bird & Bird, reviewing the book in OUP’s Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice, wrote: “[T]his is a book that can thoroughly be recommended for anyone who is drafting or negotiating agreements in Europe in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors… One can have every confidence in the drafting, edited as the book is by Mark Anderson, whose area of speciality this is, and who has already written a number of valuable books on technology licensing.”

Chapters in books edited by others

• Technology Transactions (ed: Professor de Werra University of Geneva; Schulthess Editions Romandes 2018) – chapter on “International IP Transactions: Arguments for Developing a UN Standard”. This chapter follows up on the chapter mentioned below, in light of discussions with UN agencies and further reflection on the subject, with an article that focuses on the benefits of developing a UN standard for IP transactions, perhaps based on the UN Convention for Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.
• Research Handbook on Intellectual Property Licensing (ed: Professor de Werra University of Geneva; Edward Elgar Publishing) – chapter on patent licensing. In his chapter, Mark first proposed international standards for IP licence agreements.
• Modern Law of Patents (Roughton, LexisNexis, 1^st and 2^nd editions) – chapter on transactions
• Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook of Best Practices (ed: Anatole Krattiger; PIPRA and others; this major work, edited in the USA, is a comprehensive guide to technology transfer for developing countries; translated into Vietnamese) – chapter on options
• Growing Business Handbook (Jolly, Kogan Page, 15^th edition; originally prepared for the Institute of Directors) – chapter on IP licensing for SMEs

[1] Brendan Biggs PhD, former Oxford University English lecturer, now a PSL with Ashfords.

[2] The Swedish contributor, Eric Runesson, recently became a judge of the Swedish Supreme Court.

Other publications to which we have contributed

1. EF&P: We have written several volumes of the Encyclopedia of Forms and Precedents (LexisNexis), including volumes on Research and Development, IP Licensing, Contracts for Services, and Confidentiality.  These volumes mainly comprise template agreements and accompanying commentary.  The price of the complete set of volumes of EF&P is several thousand pounds, but the volumes are also available via an annual subscription with LexisNexis.  Periodically (typically about every 5 years, on a rolling programme) we are commissioned to update the volumes that we have written.
2. Unico Guides: Several years ago, we were commissioned by the UK Department of Trade and Industry (via PraxisUnico) to write a series of 9 Practical Guides for university technology transfer managers on different types of transaction including licensing, spin-outs, consultancy, etc.  The complete set of booklets can be found on the PraxisUnico website here.
3. Enterprise Ireland: in 2015-22, we drafted a series of agreements (mostly on licensing and technology transfer) and commentaries, for use between Irish universities and industry, with input on Irish law from Deirdre Kilroy and her colleagues at LK Shields, an Irish solicitors’ firm

Links to published reviews

Some published reviews of our books can be found at the links below.

1. Drafting and Negotiating Commercial Contracts. Review by German-British Chamber of Commerce here.
2. A-Z Guide to Boilerplate and Commercial Contracts. Review of 3rd edition by Ken Adams here.
3. Technology Transfer. Review of 2nd edition (2003) by Rosemary Boyle, Cambridge University legal department, in Cambridge Law Journal here.
4. Drafting Agreements in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries. Review by Trevor Cook here.
5. Technology Transactions. See details above. A very nice review appears in the Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology and E-Commerce Law (Jipitec) here.

Citation of our books

We have not conducted any systematic review of whether our books and articles have been cited in other publications. As our works are mostly intended for a practitioner audience rather than an academic audience, we would not expect extensive citation. We are pleased when our works are cited! Below is the start of an attempt to record significant citations.

1. Law Commission consultation paper (number 237) on Electronic Execution of Documents, 21 August, 2018. This paper cites our book Execution of Documents in three places.
2. CIPA Guide to the Patents Acts. All editions since the early 1990s have cited Technology Transfer and an article written by Mark in the Guide’s discussion of section 36 of the Patents Act 1977.