Friday fripperies

Entries for the IPKat's latest competition have been trickling in quite slowly, possibly because the closing date of 5 March is still so far away. In short, the United Nations has just created a new agency, the World Office for the Environment (WOE), which is charged with preserving the health of the planet, combating global warming, grounding aeroplanes, stopping the burning of rainforests and so on. You have been commissioned to create a catchy slogan for WOE, of not more than 15 words, that will capture the hearts and minds of the wasteful, wanton inhabitants of the heaviest energy-consuming nations. Best slogans will be published on this weblog. The prize, complimentary admission (inclusive of a good lunch) to CLT's Copying Without Infringing conference on Tuesday 13 March 2007.

Full details of the competition here. Send your entries here. Copying Without Infringing conference details here.


The IPKat received a letter today from an outfit calling itself Domain Registry of America (DROA), headed "Domain Name Expiration Notice", making it look as though he had to fill in the form and pay his money over to these people if he wanted to keep the www.ipkat.com domain name. He has never heard of the DROA and is not best pleased with this sort of activity which, he learns, is called domain slamming. A little swift research has revealed that DROA is not the only business that does this sort of thing. Says Merpel, click here, here, here and here before responding to any suspicious-looking renewal notices.

Left: where the IPKat proposes to file correspondence from DROA


On the subject of receiving strange and suspicious correspondence, the IPKat has received an email from a body calling itself the European Intellectual Property Association (EIPAWEB). On its website the EIPA says it

"... represents over 100 non-governmental and other not-for-profit organisations interested in protection the intellectual property of all europeans" (sic).

The website adds:

"The European Intellectual Property Association (EIPAWEB) INCLUDES MORE THAN 300 PROGRAMS, covering a wide spectrum of activities".

It may just be a consequence of his ignorance, but IPKat team blogger Jeremy has been active in IP circles since 1973 and has yet to hear of this organisation. A Google Search for "European Intellectual Property Association" this morning threw up a paltry 121 hits, most of which were links from other websites. In fact, there seems to be something of a cottage industry consisting of grandly named websites that serve no purpose other than to link to each other's sites. The IPKat has written to EIPAWEB to ask it for the names of its 100+ NGO and not-for-profit organisations and for details of its 300+ programs. Meanwhile, if any reader can shed any useful information about this curious body, the IPKat (who can be emailed here) will be delighted to know.


Kill that hyphen! When writing about the goods of one trader looking like those of a competitor, people often employ the spelling "look-a-like", using two hyphens. This is silly, says the IPKat. The proper spelling is "look-alike" because it's meaningless to talk of "a-like" unless you're in the ha-bit of hy-phen-a-ting e-ver-y word ...

In contrast, please see A-Bomb, A-Team
Correct use of hyphens here and here


Private Lives: Photographing People is the title of an event being held by OwnIt on Monday 12 March 2007 from 5.30-7.30pm (followed by drinks and networking from 7.30pm-8.15pm). Basically: do you need permission to take and use photos of people in candid situations in public places? If so, how do you go about getting it?

Speakers: Gwen Thomas (Chief Executive Officer, Association of Photographers) and Nicola Solomon (Head of IP, Finers Stephens Innocent). Location: Crisis Skylight Café, 64 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LT (map). Cost: free, if you book online.


Australian lawyer and business strategist Duncan Bucknall's Global Lipitor Scoreboard has just been updated again. Click here for the latest tally of patent wins/losses for rampant, rapacious Ranbaxy against profitable patent-owner Pfizer's enantiomer patent ...