Each year, the ABA Journal (‘Law News Now’) produces an annual list of the 100 best legal blogs (or ‘blawgs’). The final list is determined by ABA Journal staff and, while it is not a ‘popularity contest’, they welcome input in the form of ‘friend-of-the-blawg briefs’, a.k.a. the Blawg 100 Amici.The 6th annual search is now on for the top 100 blawgs of 2012. Now, we are not going to twist anybody’s arm, but if any readers would like to file a Blawg Amici brief on behalf of Patentology, submissions are due by 7 pm (US) ET on 7 September 2012.
More information, and the Blawg 100 Amici submission form, can be found on the ABA Journal web site.
MORE ABOUT THE BLAWG 100
Although popularity is not the main criterion for making the Blawg 100 list, once it has been compiled the ABA Journal conducts a popular vote in order to ‘rank’ the blawgs in each category. In 2011, the categories were:- news;
- trial practice;
- niche;
- for fun;
- opinion;
- IP law;
- labor and employment;
- criminal justice;
- business law;
- torts; and
- legal technology.
Dennis Crouch’s Patently-O and Gene Quinn’s IP Watchdog are, of course, the titans of the IP blawg world. Each year they fight it out for the top spot in the popular vote, and while IP Watchdog won the day in 2010 – with 299 votes to Patently-O’s 209 – last year went the other way, with Patently-O receiving 845 votes to beat IP Watchdog’s 702. To give you some idea of just how huge these blogs are, third place went to Copyhype with a mere 50 votes!
Further information about the 2011 Blawg 100, including details of the blawgs in all categories, and their performance in the popular vote, can be found on the ABA Journal web site.
While it seems certain that IP Watchdog and Patently-O will once again grab gold and silver in the IP Law category this year, the bronze medal spot will be up for grabs which (based upon Australia’s performance in the London Olympics) is a perfectly respectable achievement in an extremely competitive world of high-quality IP law blogs!
Tags: News, Patentology admin
4 comments:
Hello Mark-
I am sometimes mystified why Dennis Crouch's Patently-O
blawg enjoys such popularity, as it seems to be somewhat anemic to me most
times. He also seems to not care at all about all the rabid and very nasty
comments from the *usual* anonymous suspects. I tried to ask him about that at
least twice, and he turned a deaf ear, and I have since become a *bad* guy as
far as he is concerned I suspect.
In my opinion he is just an Ivory Tower academic, with
little or no experience out there in the real world of practicing patent law,
unlike yourself and Gene Quinn. You definitely have my vote this year, right
after IP Watchdog, just because Gene is so prolific in his writings. Pretty hard
to compete with someone who personally knows about half of the senior staff at
the USPTO only about 50 miles away, but that shouldn't be what the contest is
about.
It should be about wisdom and intelligence, which is
nearly a draw as regards IP law in my opinion, between you and Gene. I should
probably subscribe to the Brit IPKat I suppose, to make sure I haven't been
missing anything there.
Best wishes,
Stan~
Hi Mark
I read your blog religiously and have just cast my vote for it. Good luck!
Karen Heilbronn Lee
Hi Karen
Thanks for the support, it is greatly appreciated!
Mark
Hi Stan
I agree with you about the comments on Patently-O, and I also cannot understand why Dennis would allow his enormously popular blog to be used, for all practical purposes, as a bulletin board for a small group of regulars to conduct their personal flame wars. I imagine that 99.99% of readers simply read the posts and move on. Patentology does not receive many comments (by comparison), but they are always thoughtful and constructive, and I try to respond to as many as I can.
I am less concerned about the academic nature of Patently-O, perhaps because I was an academic myself in a former life (engineering, not law). Academic research and analysis have an important place, particularly in providing insights and input into policy issues. Practitioners, such as Gene and myself, run the risk of being so focused on what we think is best (by which we generally mean best for people like our clients) that we might not give adequate consideration to the bigger social and economic picture.
So there is clearly a place for both types of commentary.
The IPKat is a great blog, with the benfit of having a number of authors from different backgrounds. You should definitely check it out, although there are only so many hours in the day!
And, finally, thanks for your kind words and support!
Cheers,
Mark
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