WHILE THE CAT WAS AWAY ...

This blog is devoted to things you would have read about last week, if the IPKat hadn't gone on holiday.

* Yet another top-level domain. The new .eu domain, for use by European Union residents and businesses, is set to be introduced in late 2004. EURid, a consortium of several European country code-naming authorities, has been appointed to run the domain. The domain is expected to be launched with a "sunrise period" approximately 8-9 months after contracts are signed with the Commission and the Sweet & Maxwell. It includes "Advertising, Publicity Rights and English Law" by Hazel Carty, "From Entertainment to Education: the Scope of Copyright" by Charlotte Waelde and Hector MacQueen, a good piece by Geroge Wei on database right and telephone directories as well as a feature by Christian Rütz on parody.

* Bad faith. In Harrison v Teton Valley Trading Company (the CHINA WHITE case) the Court of Appeal for England and Wales has confirmed, after a review of earlier case law, that a trade mark application may be regarded as having been made in bad faith even if it has not been made dishonestly. Judgment was given by the recently-retired but apparently still active Lord Justice Aldous.

* Claim construction. In Unilin Beheer BV v Berry Floor NV, another Court of Appeal decision, Lord Justice Jacob delivered some further advice on the interpretation of technical terms in a patent claim by the notional person skilled in the art. In this case the term was "free of play", which had been used in respect of floor panels. Cases of this nature appear to the IPKat to be based as much on canons of common sense as upon fixed and immutable rules of interpretation. Accordingly, he doubts whether they are of any particular precedental value.

* Translation watch. The Court of First Instance decisions which, the IPKat complained, had not been translated into English before he went on holiday remain obdurately untranslated. So too does the Opinion of the Advocate General in Case C-245/02 Anheuser-Busch, which was handed down on 29 June. This case is available in just seven languages.