Monday miscellany

Around the blogs. "Intellectual property information at your fingertips" is a big claim, but the illustrious US law firm of Pattishall, McAuliffe, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson LLP proposes to match it via its blog.  Looks good so far, says the IPKat, but the other fee earners may soon have to put on their blogging boots and give plenty of support to Phillip Barengolts, who seems to have done most of the recent work.  Another shining beacon of US IP practice has started blogging too: this time it's Perkins Coie with its IP Litigation Update. PC has a six-person blogging team which promises a "Lesson Learned” feature which distils each case into a takeaway point to apply in other situations. The IPKat is delighted to see so didactic a policy, which quite reflects his own feelings about what a blog should do; adds Merpel, I expect anyone litigating against the firm, or thinking of doing so, will welcome it too!

If you're in Berlin this coming Thursday and can get to the Intercontinental Hotel's Marlene Bar, various members of the MARQUES Class 46 blog team will be enjoying a refreshing pre-banquet drink with each other and, more importantly, with any readers who happen to be there. Readers of this blog since its exception will be familiar with its saturation coverage of the trade mark exploits of German polar bear cubs, as well as the more recent saga of Paul the Octopus.  Accordingly, any reader who brings his own octopus or polar bear cub to this gathering can claim a free drink.  Further details of this little event can be found here.

Two autumnal initiatives.  The autumn leaves tumble, but IPso Jure's latest monthly IP update podcast will not lose its verdant splendour.  More details of Peter Groves' splendid initiative here. Another worthy autumnal initiative is that of ATRIP, the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property. IPKat team member Jeremy is a founder member, and its secretary for two years in the 1980s under the Presidency of Professor William R. Cornish. He is however embarrassed to note that he is very behind with his membership dues and that he really must do something to rectify this.  More significantly, "In order to reveal ATRIP's global reach and to improve public perception of our association, the Executive Committee decided to publish a list of members of ATRIP, which is now online here". If you wish to be named too, please communicate your consent by emailing Dagmar here -- and be sure to join if you haven't already ...

We are all diminished by the death of any one of us, and the IPKat is the first to concede that the late Lord Bingham of Cornhill was a distinguished member of the judiciary. He also feels uncomfortable about quibbling with obituaries.  However, if he were left to his own devices he would be apt to conclude that the characterisation of Lord Bingham as "The greatest English judge of the modern era" -- as The Guardian claims -- was a little over-the-top.

His Lordship's contributions to intellectual property were small, but not insignificant.  Thus, when ruling that the operation of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office was not subject to the European Convention on Human Rights and that, accordingly, decisions of those Boards were not open to review under that Convention even if their alleged effect was to deprive a patent owner of his property without giving him the opportunity to challenge the decision, the Scottish Court of Session relied on a decision of Jacob J (as he then was) in Lenzing AG's European Patent (UK) [1997] R.P.C. 245, which itself drew support from a ruling of Lord Bingham.  The same good Lord had a number of cameo roles in IP case; in one, he concurred with Lord Hoffmann in the celebrated House of Lords ruling in Synthon BV v SmithKline Beecham [2005] UKHL 59 (noted here by the IPKat), the paroxetine patent case which turned on issues of enabling disclosure. 

Finally, on a more cheerful note -- unless you seek to bend the Harley Davidson brand to your political advantage -- comes from this link, kindly supplied by Erik Bolmsjö (Ström & Gulliksson AB).

Right: good news for aspiring politicians -- here's a bike you can rely on!

In short, Swedish politician Jan Emmanuel (nationally famous as winner of Expedition Robinson, the Swedish version of the TV show Survivor, wearing a pony tail haircut and riding heavy motorcycles) has launched his own campaign for election to the local council this September on behalf of Socialdemokraterna, the Swedish Labour Party. This campaign involves a creative ad shown in the linked article, which motorcycle company Harley Davidson did not greatly appreciate. It appears that Harley Davidson did not want to be associated with this campaign since, in its opinion, its iconic motorcycles have always been a symbol of the hard working man.