Book Review

During the past decade, Rosemary J. Coombe has provided legal scholars, historians, anthropologists, and policy specialists with over a dozen provocative articles on the complex relationships among law, property, and culture (405). In The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties, Coombe offers her first book-length analysis of the meanings of intellectual property in culture and society. Her study is based on the assumption that intellectual property laws provide fertile ground for studying the social intersections of law, culture, and "interpretive agency." "In consumer cultures," she writes, "most pictures, texts, motifs, labels, logos, trade names, designs, tunes, and even some colors and scents are governed, if not controlled, by regimes of intellectual property" (6). Coombe effectively challenges the legal assumption that the meaning, value, and significance of various forms of intellectual properties are produced and defined only by the works and initial intentions of their respective authors.	1
While the introduction and accompanying seven chapters are relatively self-contained explorations, they share some common themes. Coombe addresses the role of intellectual properties in commercial and popular culture; the degree of cultural power and authority that the law provides for holders of copyrights, trademarks, publicity rights, and design patents (she does not explore letters patents); the significance and meaning of celebrity images; and the commodification of citizenship, among several other issues. In the course of her analyses, Coombe crosses the traditional boundaries that separate legal scholarship, political theory, cultural studies, and anthropology. The frightening possibility of "interdisciplinary homelessness" is no small risk for any pioneering scholar (ix). In Coombe's case, the immediate rewards are strikingly obvious. Her study has much to offer a broad range of scholars including those in the social sciences and humanities, communications departments (see also Ronald V. Bettig, Copyrighting Culture: The Political Economy of Intellectual Property [New York: Westview Press, 1996]), and law schools.	2
Coombe maintains that culture is embedded in the materials, signs, and texts over which we debate and struggle, and the imprint of those struggles on our consciousness (86). She distinguishes her work from recent works (typically other scholarly articles) in the same vein by what she calls an "ethnographic sensibility," or greater attention to the workings of law in everyday life and culture. She also casts serious doubts on the potential of categories derived from Enlightenment traditions to adequately address or resolve contemporary struggles over meaning. Coombe asserts that the controversies over intellectual properties speak to the larger debates "about cultural texts and subject-formations, identity and community, hegemony and alterity, democracy and difference, imagery and embodiment, narrativity and nationality" (7–8). One of the most persuasive arguments that Coombe develops is that it is far easier for individuals to acquire membership in a national community through patterns of active consumption than through the more formal processes of immigration and citizenship (4). Viewed in this light, culture becomes commerce and commerce becomes culture. The relationship is inherently reciprocal.	3
Coombe draws on a variety of sources including personal experiences, popular magazines, legal scholarship, and statutes. Witty and often humorous, she utilizes a series of colorful examples including Barbie and Birkenstock, Cadillac and Coca-Cola, and Geritol and James Dean in order to suggest the cultural meanings of various intellectual properties over time and across space. Such icons and household names are particularly significant because they have assumed cultural meanings and public significance beyond the original intent of their respective creators, authors, and personas. Coombe is cautious in her analysis in the sense that she does not attribute the formation of such cultural values and meanings to purely economic factors or nebulous intellectual forces. The ownership and control of such intellectual properties and identities evolve over time as the subjects interact with consumers and other popular commodities in a complicated social environment.	4
Coombe's ethnographic approach, though usually effective, has some significant flaws. The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties is sometimes awkward in both structure and prose. Coombe tends to overuse technical jargon with terms like "author(iz)ing" and "signifyin(g)" sprinkled throughout the text. Moreover, many passages throughout the study could be simplified for the sake of greater clarity and specificity. These stylistic patterns detract from her basic arguments and commentary in several instances. Equally distracting are Coombe's interesting though textually and theoretically unnecessary tangents. In some cases, she begins paragraphs or sentences with phrases like "I will wander down some inviting tangents" (49). Yet one of Coombe's most obvious shortcomings is also one of her greatest achievements. In the course of her intricate analyses, she ultimately raises more provocative questions than she is able to answer. What role should intellectual property play in an increasingly global economy? How can intellectual property regimes adjust to the rapid technical advances in a consumer society? What specific rights and powers should contemporary authors have over the public and private uses of their intellectual labors? While some readers may grow frustrated by Coombe's inquisitiveness, others may find such questions and problems fruitful ground for additional research and development. This book is a veritable gold mine for new research projects, and it includes an impressively comprehensive reference section on relevant scholarly works, popular writings, and legal cases.	5
In addition to Coombe's pathbreaking work, a growing body of theoretical studies is beginning to explore the cultural meanings and political economy of intellectual property rights. New communications technologies and advanced methods of reproducing texts and images enable a greater and more rapid exchange of cultural materials and hence new possibilities for social bonds. While such technological developments pose unprecedented opportunities for economic gains and political interactions on national and international levels, they also raise new problems that will continue to challenge and perhaps redefine our cultural and legal definitions of intellectual properties over time.	6
Lisa A. Marovich Loyola Marymount University

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