THE AFTERNOON POST

1 Another strange slogan for the collection

The 60 or 70 souls who asked to read Jeremy's "banned" back-pager for Trademark World (see IPKat blog, 30 June 2005) will know that it dealt with silly slogans that intellectual property law firms -- who ought to know better -- like to apply to themselves. Well, today the IPKat's joint blogmeister has just been hit between the eyes by another one: "Smart in your world". It's actually an out of context quotation from a statement by the firm's chairman:

"As we continue to grow and evolve as a firm, we hope one thing stays exactly the same: our dedication to offering the best legal service, delivered by people you relate to as well as respect. We want to be the kind of people who keep your goals in the forefront, striving to be Smart in Your World".

This may impress clients, assuming they want to instruct a law firm that wants to be smart rather than one that already is. But it doesn't cut much ice with one half of the IPKat who, being mildly dyslexic, comes away from the slogan with the words "arent smart" impressed upon his memory.


2 Dutch court blocks attempt to find out who's sharing those files

This from the BBC: A Dutch judge has blocked attempts to find out who may be illegally sharing movies and music in Holland. Dutch industry group BREIN tried to discover the identities of file-sharers, following investigative work by Media Sentry. But the judge said the US company had broken Dutch privacy laws, which meant net service firms did not have to hand over any name and address data. BREIN plans to appeal.

The action was brought against Five Dutch net service suppliers - UPC, Essent Kabelcom, Tiscali, Wanadoo and KPN - who had defied BREIN's earlier demands that they surrender the data. Their attorney Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm, described this ruling as "an important victory for the privacy of internet users". It might only signal a short reprieve for the file-sharers, because the Utrecht court said it had the power to force net firms to surrender data if BREIN obtained the information legally (which the anti-piracy organisation has said that it would try to do). Nine individuals the people found and identified by Brein have reached out of court agreements with the group. Brein represents 52 media organisations including EMI, Universal and Sony Music. The IPKat will be watching to see what happens next. Merpel adds, it's good to see the courts paying more than mere lip service to privacy laws, isn't it?