The latest issue of the magazine profiles the people leading the debates about the way that intellectual property impacts consumers, patients, artists, scientists and businesses. It includes judges, in-house lawyers, academics, law makers, policy advisers, campaigners, business people and government officials.

The 2007 list was selected by MIP’s team of journalists, in consultation with leading practitioners in the field.

Debates about patent trolls, digital rights management, copyright term, access to medicines and protection on the internet all testify to the growing visibility of IP issues in the economy, and society in general. Managing Intellectual Property’s list identifies the people shaping those debates.

The list includes those who make and enforce rules on intellectual property such as US Supreme Court judge John Roberts, those who are developing new and lucrative ways of using IP such as Microsoft’s in-house lawyer Marshall Phelps, and those who have challenged the international IP regime such as Thailand’s Minister of Health Mongkol Na Songkhla, who recently ordered the compulsory license of drug patents to lower the price of medicines in his country.

Also on this year’s list are William Patry, legal adviser to Google; Philip Rosedale, who founded the Second Life website; Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay; and Alison Brimelow, the new head of the European Patent Office.

Subscribers can click here to read MIP’s profiles of the 50 most influential people in IP. Non-subscribers can click here for a free trial to Managing Intellectual Property.