Wednesday whimsies

This striking image was taken at the reception held earlier this month at London's latest novelty venue, The Gherkin, to celebrate the centenary of London-based IP practice Mathys & Squire. Following high-powered presentations and comments from Patents Court judge Sir Christopher Floyd, European Patent Board of Appeal head Alexander S. Clelland, the birthday firm's senior partner Peter Garratt, BT's patent head Simon Roberts and Stanley Black and Decker regional IP Director Darrin Shaya, the assembled multitudes adjourned to The Gherkin for a little spiritual refreshment. If the photographic evidence is reliable, the glasses were still standing at the end of reception, regardless of whether the guests were. Actually, says IPKat team member Jeremy, who chaired the discussion session, within the patent community it's not necessary to be vertical: you only need to be sufficiently close to upright as to be able to function as though you were indeed so. About 6 degrees off-beam should be okay (see Catnic Components Ltd v Hill & Smith, here).

The August 2010 issue of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) is now available online to subscribers, well ahead of the paper version. You can peruse the contents of this issue here. The full text of the Editorial, "IP Services and Professional Standards", can be read on the jiplp weblog here.

Here's something to disappoint those folk who believe that every IP infringer gets away with his heinous activities. The IPKat thanks Chris Torrero for this link to a Bloomberg feature, "Pfizer Spies Find Spanish Villa, Gold Rolex in Fake Viagra Bust". This is the tale of Martin Hickman, whom Pfizer have vigorously pursued in order to separate him from the fortune he is said to have made from the persistent sale of fake Viagra. The Kat fervently hopes that this Hickman is no relation of the illustrious Ron Hickman, who made his fortune from the more reputable side of intellectual property when he patented the Workmate workbench, or of Katie Hickman, who as an internationally best-selling author has tasted the legitimate rewards of copyright royalties.


And now for something completely different: the Kat thanks his respected colleague Hugo Cox for drawing his attention to a title that doesn't seem to have emanated from the usual legal publishing channels. It's Stephen Kuncewicz's debut publication, Legal Issues Of Web 2.0 and Social Media, published by Ark (details here). According to the Eword Blog, it's the first literature to explore the legal implications for companies operating across social media and the web. Eword has some highly positive things to say about it and the Kat hopes to tell you more if he gets to see a copy in the flesh ...

Any suggestions? The LexisNexis-published Butterworths Intellectual Property Law Handbook, of which IPKat team member Jeremy is Consultant Editor, is currently in its 9th edition and the publishers are making preliminary plans to update it to the 10th. The 9th edition is current to the summer of 2009 but the 10th won't be out till 2011. Meanwhile, if blog readers who also use this book have any suggestions regarding its content, lay-out, user-friendliness etc, can they please email Jeremy here and let him know.