Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

ハッシュタグと商標－比較法のアプローチ
Aslani, Nazanin, Hashtags and Trade Marks: A Comparative Legal Approach. 272 pp. 2024:2 (E. Elgar, UK) <712-433>
ISBN 978-1-03-531660-1 hard ¥28,820.- (税込) GB￡ 100.00 *

This timely book examines the growing importance of hashtags both in online culture and within our digital society. Conducting a comparative analysis of legal strategies within the EU, Germany, and the United States, it aims to ascertain whether a fair balance currently exists between freedom of expression and competition in the treatment of hashtags as trade marks. Nazanin Aslani firstly introduces a novel taxonomy of hashtags, highlighting their multifaceted functions, which goes beyond their commercial value to encompass their expressive, communicative, and organisational aspects. The book then highlights the need for a deeper understanding of hashtag functions, arguing that this lack of understanding has led to mischaracterisation by courts and registries, which in turn has led to contradictory case outcomes. Featuring an extensive analysis, this book advocates for strong fair use defences to maintain a balance between protection and free expression, competition, and internet regulation and deregulation. Providing a unique focus on this evolving subject, Hashtags and Trade Marks will be an excellent resource for academics of comparative trade mark, unfair competition and intellectual property law. Practitioners, policy makers and in-house counsel will also benefit from this book to fill in knowledge gaps surrounding hashtags and provide solutions for organisational devices used as trade marks yet to be developed.

Gless, Sabine / Whalen-Bridge, Helena (eds.), Human-Robot Interaction in Law and its Narratives: Legal Blame, Procedure, and Criminal Law. 360 pp. 2024:6 (Cambridge U. Pr., UK) <712-434>
ISBN 978-1-00-943150-7 hard ¥30,261.- (税込) GB￡ 105.00

Robots are with us, but law and legal systems are not ready. This book identifies the issues posed by human-robot interactions in substantive law, procedural law, and law's narratives, and suggests how to address them. When human-robot interaction results in harm, who or what is responsible? Part I addresses substantive law, including the issues raised by attempts to impose criminal liability on different actors. And when robots perceive aspects of an alleged crime, can they be called as a sort of witness? Part II addresses procedural issues raised by human-robot interactions, including evidentiary problems arising out of data generated by robots monitoring humans, and issues of reliability and privacy. Beyond the standard fare of substantive and procedural law, and in view of the conceptual quandaries posed by robots, Part III offers chapters on narrative and rhetoric, suggesting different ways to understand human-robot interactions, and how to develop coherent frameworks to do that. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Tommasi, Sara, The Risk of Discrimination in the Digital Market: From the Digital Services Act to the Future. (SpringerBriefs in Law) 107 pp. 2023:12 (Springer, GW) <712-435>
ISBN 978-3-031-43639-0 paper ¥10,936.- (税込) EUR 44.99

The book starts with an analysis of what is new in the Digital Services Act. The aim is to see whether this new Regulation is appropriate both for not halting technological innovation and for addressing the risks that technological innovation poses to society and to the people who use digital services. The focal point is the risk of discrimination as people are often helpless in the face of the potential discriminations in the digital services sector. In particular, the book analyses how the Digital Services Act can make a concrete contribution to the protection against discrimination. To this end, it focuses on the responsibility of digital service providers and the fact that discrimination may also depend on the way in which algorithms and artificial intelligence systems are used. Therefore, a comparison is made between the Digital Services Act and the proposed Artificial Intelligence Act. The comparison discloses that the risk-based approach is the common thread followed by the EU in regulating the digital market. The book elaborates also on the practical implications of the risk-based approach. Highlighting advantages and limitations leading the author to conclude that the risk-based approach is the way forward only if the differences between risk and danger, the limits of law, and the limits of the tendency to humanise artificial intelligence systems are considered. With specific reference to the risk of discrimination, the need for a systemic and multi-level approach is highlighted, which reinforces the contribution that can be made not only by the Digital Services Act, but also by more general and cross-cutting legislation as those on data protection and unfair commercial practices.