The New York-based scientific publisher Gordon and Breach has suffered a setback in the first round of its legal battle waged in European courts against the American Institute of Physics. The publishing firm had brought suits against AIP last year, claiming that an article in the July 1988 issue of the institute's monthly, Physics Today, reporting on a survey of journal prices (The Scientist, Sept. 4, 1989, page 4), was damaging to Gordon and Breach. The article, written by retired physicist Henry Barschall, reported that journals published by Gordon and Breach were significantly more expensive than those of other publishers.
In the suit in Zurich commercial court, the publisher charged that AIP and the American Physical Society, a member organization, had engaged in unfair comparative advertising. The case was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds from commercial court in Zurich on December 19, and Gordon and Breach was ordered to pay nearly ...
