Friday fantasmagoria

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Intellectual Property Planet is the latest IP weblog to come to the IPKat's attention. It is masterminded by Bulgarian IP enthusiast Ventsi Stoilov and you can visit it here -- but you'd better have your English-Bulgarian phrase book handy, plus a good command of the Cyrillic alphabet, the third official alphabet of the European Union. Always happy to see new entrants to the IP blogging community, the IPKat wishes Ventsi and his venture the best of luck.


Here's a useful set of tools for anyone toiling with European Union legislation. In the Official Journal of the European Union today you can get

* a consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union;
* a consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;
* Protocols and Annexes;
* Declarations annexed to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference which adopted the Treaty of Lisbon;
* Tables of equivalences.

Don't be in a hurry to print it out, though -- from tip to toe these documents come to some 388 pages of A4.


The IPKat thanks his Beanstalk friend Miri Frankel for this item concerning Tulsa businessman Chris Ohman, who uses the phrases "Barkstrong" and "Purrstrong" on his animal charity's pet collars. Ohman is suing the Lance Armstrong Foundation, alleging that its yellow "LiveStrong" wristbands infringe Ohman's intellectual property rights because it also sells pet collars bearing the word "LiveStrong". Last year the Armstrong Foundation, founded by the eelebrated cancer-suffering cyclist, filed a similar suit against Ohman in Texas, seeking unspecified damages. The IPKat wonders what sort of damage this litigation causes to the good intentions of would-be charitable donors.


From his friend music lawyer Ben Challis the IPKat learns of a CMU Daily report Manchester trio The Get Out Clause have hit on a brilliant new way of making videos. First perform in front of 80 different CCTV cameras (Manchester is well-endowed with these). Then apply for copies of the footage under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Guitarist Tony Churnside is reported to have told Sky News: "We wanted to produce something that looked good and that wasn't too expensive to do". Ben says you can check out the video on YouTube here. Merpel says, with a name like that, I wonder if The Get Out Clause uses Mr Loophole for its legal advice.