Friday farrago

There's a conference on copyright history coming up at Stationers Hall, London, on March 19-20. The conference launches an AHRC-funded digital resource comprising primary sources on copyright history from five jurisdictions, with translations and commentaries. According to the IPKat's informant, Professor Lionel Bently (the IPLion?) the conference features an array of international speakers and an exhibition of original documents including the Stationers' Charter and the parchment Statute of Anne. The organisers hope it will engender international interest to enable the digital resource to be extended beyond the five jurisdictions, and for similar projects to be undertaken in the field of patents and trade marks. Details here.


Via Lilian Edwards comes this link to a debate at the London School of Economics on music and downloads, to be held on Wednesday 19 March. The debate is entitled "Musicians, fans and online copyright" and it will run from 2-5.30pm. Confirmed speakers include John Kennedy (CEO of IFPI), Paul Sanders (Director of Strategy at Playlouder), Becky Hogge (Open Rights Group), Lilian Edwards (Southampton University), Rufus Pollock (Cambridge University) and Michelle Childs (Knowledge Ecology International). Says the IPKat, the term "confirmed speakers" is a curious one. Are they confirmed in the sense that they'll definitely be participating, or is it a judgment on their personalities (like "confirmed bachelor" or "confirmed speaker"?)


Here's another one from the IPLion: there's a CIPIL conference on Trade Mark Dilution on 15 March. Lord Justice Jacob will be in the chair, and speakers include Ansgar Ohly (Bayreuth University), Emmanuel Baud (Avocat, Paris), Dev Gangjee (LSE), Richard Arnold QC (Appointed Person), Martin Senftleben (University of Amsterdam), Graeme Dinwoodie (Chicago-Kent, QMUL), John Noble (British Brands Group), David Llewelyn (White and Case), David Keeling (OHIM) and Jennifer Davis (Cambridge). Details here.


This is a service announcment for readers of the IP Finance weblog, who may wonder why they've not been receiving posts by email:

"Many readers have emailed to say that they have been unable to sign up to the IP Finance group that lets them receive each weblog posting as an email. Others have reported successfully signing up but not receiving any posts by email.The problem has been traced to a missing hyphen, which has since been reinstated. Can readers who wish to receive posts by email please re-enter their details in the appropriate box in the right-hand margin? They should then begin receiving regular updates -- and no mysterious messages in Czech".