Friday festivities

The IPKat's Australian friend Ian Drew (Davies Collison Cave) has drawn his attention to legalWiki.org.au.

Right: two cuddly Australians deep in thought, wondering if they can create a caption that justifies their inclusion in this news item

This, according to the website,

"... is a legal journal in the electronic form of a wiki. It is a non-profit site run by a non-profit organisation. A wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content. A wiki enables documents to be written collaboratively, in a simple markup language using a web browser. A single page in a wiki is referred to as a "wiki page", while the entire body of pages, which are usually highly interconnected via hyperlinks, is "the wiki". A wiki is essentially a database for creating, browsing and searching information.

legalWiki.org.au is edited by the legal community and is open to the general public for viewing without the need to register any user account.

It is our belief that contributing to legalWiki.org.au can earn CPD points".

Fantastic, says the IPKat - who likes the idea of wiki contributors gaining credit in terms of their continuing professional development. What you mean, adds Merpel, is that this idea is going to be stolen by the Room 6 initiative when it makes its case for funding in a week or two. Exactly, says the IPKat!


Whoops - the deadline for the competition to list the five traits that a trade mark examiner really needs has come and gone, and the IPKat hasn't announced the winner. This was a little tricky, since those trade mark examiners who entered it either did so anonymously or, having given the IPKat their names, later asked to be treated anonymously. There were some very amusing entries, quite a few in-jokes and some suggestions which looked as though they might be barbed references to senior colleagues too.

None of the entrants came up with five really good traits, but everyone did quite well with the first two or three. Best performance came from our winner, Nicola Searle (School of Economics and Finance, University of St Andrews, Scotland). Well done, Nicola - you are entitled to attend the CLT conference on Intellectual Property and the Fashion Industry on Thursday 20 September (details here) as the guest of the sponsor.

Right: fashions come, fashions go ...

And now for a medley of some of the best traits that our competitors listed:

"* Generic skills: daily activities will include xeroxing, photoshopping, googling and managing spam;

* Distinctive intellect; must be able to tell the difference between ¢®@Ï and ﯚ∞Ã;

* Understanding of the suggestive nature of Pen Island and Wild's Exact Consultants;

* Double headed coin (with special tossing qualities) for those really subjective cases;
* The hide of a rhino with the eyes of a hawk (an excessively large brain is not a requirement since those cursed with such a physical feature are generally unable to make up their minds);

* Selective eyesight and a deaf ear;

* An aversion to descriptive logos (and boring domain names);

* The ability to pronounce the words "not sufficiently distinctive - apply for a Hearing if you must" (no bitterness intended).

Some exciting events are coming up at the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute in the near future. According to the QMIPRI website, a new Herchel Smith Seminar Series starts on 24 September with "Hello!" - a review of the litigation in the dispute between popular magazines OK! and Hello! over the right to publish photographs of the wedding of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones. The participants are Professor Gavin Phillipson (Durham) and Dr Tanya Aplin (KCL). According to the website: The seminar is free but numbers are strictly limited, so please register by emailing the Institute Manager, Charlotte Knights. The evening will commence at 6pm followed by the discussion and drinks.


Pfizer will be celebrating their victory in Beijing in the latest round of its battle to keep its Viagra patent in force. The IPKat's friend Emma Barraclough has just sent him this little feature that she wrote for Managing Intellectual Property. Says the IPKat, the Viagra patent has been litigated in quite a few countries, hasn't it? Shouldn't Duncan Bucknell be doing one of his famous scorecards for it? Merpel says, I know this is a family weblog and I do my best to be a good Kat -- but why can't I read articles like this without the words "It'll never stand up in court" flashing through my mind?