ADVICE WANTED, PLEASE; NEW SEMICONDUCTOR CHIP RULES

Advice wanted, please

IPKat co-blogmeister Jeremy has been working this afternoon on his little book on the European IP Enforcement Directive (Directive 2004/48). While he has been writing, he has jotted down a few odd points, on which he'd appreciate some help or feedback. In particular

* is anyone aware of any research that has been done as to whether the publication of the results of IP infringement cases in newspapers or journals, in countries where this is regularly ordered by the courts, has any deterrent effect on infringers who are named in the notices (which the Directive assumes it does)?

* has the European Commission ever been unsuccessful in any proceedings which it has brought against an EU member state for failure to implement the terms of an IP Directive (or indeed any Directive)?

* under Article 13, infringement damages may take account of the "moral prejudice caused to the rightholder by the infringement". Do any readers of this blog come from countries in which the term "moral prejudice" has been given meaning by the courts? If so, what does it mean?

If you can shed light on any of these items, can you please email Jeremy here and let him know. More questions will be posted on a regular basis and anyone who gives a good and useful answer will be given an acknowledgement in the book itself.

Left: when I said, "If you can shed light", this wasn't the sort of shed light I was thinking of ...

Jeremy hopes he'll have this book finished by the end of January 2007. For a progress report on how many words he has written so far, check here.


New Semiconductor Chip Rules for UK

The Design Right (Semiconductor Topographies) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 (Statutory Instrument 2006 No. 1833) have just been drawn to the IPKat's attention. Made on 10 July and coming into force on 1 August 2006, they amend the Design Right (Semiconductor Topographies) Regulations 1989 (SI 1989/1100) to give effect to the Council Decision of 22 December 1994 on the extension of the legal protection of topographies of semiconductor products to persons from a member of the World Trade Organization (94/824/EC). The 1989 Regulations themselves modifyied the application of Part 3 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1989 (that's the bit that applies to designs) to make the law fit semi-conductor topographies too.

So that's that, then, says the IPKat. Not much to get excited about there. Merpel's not so sure: surely semiconductor chip protection is a truly exciting subject whose time has not quite yet come, she speculates between yawns ...

How to make good chips here
Chip of the old block here