Who? Neil Blair, 38-year-old junior partner at Christopher Little Literary Agency (CLLA) and specialist in intellectual property.

Why is he in the news? CLLA represents author JK Rowling, and Mr Blair has been kept busy ensuring that her intellectual property rights are protected, particularly in respect of her sixth book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which will be released on 16 July. Last week, an injunction was obtained on behalf of publishers Bloomsbury and Ms Rowling, preventing anyone releasing information about the latest book. As Ms Rowling has not licensed copies of any of the books to be published on-line in e-book form, Mr Blair has been taking action to prevent pirated on-line copies.


Background: Law degree at Exeter College, Oxford followed by the LPC at Guildford College of Law. Trained at Linklaters, qualifying in 1992. Remained in the firm's litigation department for two years before joining Warner Bros' legal and business affairs department, where he became head of business affairs in Europe. Worked there until 2001 when he was invited to join CLLA.


Route to the case: 'The Harry Potter connection started when I was at Warner Bros - I negotiated and drafted the audio visual and allied rights acquisition in the Harry Potter series for them. Christopher Little has always been Ms Rowling's agent and I met him during the negotiations. Four years ago he asked me to join his agency.'


Thoughts on the matter: 'In relation to the Internet, Ms Rowling is not alone in not having licensed e-books - many children's authors are the same. There are people who write Harry Potter-based stories and put them on the Internet for sale under JK Rowling's name. Fans also write their own stories under their own names and publish them on the Internet. While we would take action against the former group, we would not do so against the latter unless the stories were inappropriate. Our prime aim is to protect Ms Rowling's intellectual property rights and ensure she is able to continue to write the stories. Secondly, we are also protecting the fans - they can be confident that the products they buy are genuine. Copyright owners and their representatives have a responsibility to monitor the Internet and take action where appropriate, and we spend a lot of time doing this. But it would be helpful if some companies and Internet service providers took a more proactive approach to policing the situation.'



Dealing with the media: 'Generally, the media has been very supportive and positive. We have a good relationship with them, which is welcome. But we do sometimes have to take steps to ensure copyright interests are protected.'