Friday fervour

Don't dare forget to check out the Forthcoming Events feature in the left-hand side-bar of the IPKat's front page --and don't forget to have a lovely weekend, even if you're not heading for next week's flashmob branding event, the International Trademark Association meeting in Berlin.


"Spurious precision" is the title of a talk, advertised on the IP Finance weblog, which Oliver Rivers is giving on Tuesday 27 May, 5pm at the London office of Olswang, solicitors (map here). The subject matter is the debate between the need to place IP rights within a range of values and the requirement that it have one ascertainable value at the point at which something happens to it. Light refreshments and a chance to chat (till 6.30pm) will also be provided -- and there's no charge for admission. If you'd like to attend, email IPKat team blogger Jeremy here.


The UDRP Blog ("Welcome to My Domain™) is the brainchild of William J. Morris III. William is a trade mark, copyright, internet and entertainment law attorney with IP boutique firm Saunders & Silverstein (Newburyport, Massachusetts). Despite his apparent extreme youth (see portrait, right),William is old enough to have litigated a number of UDRP disputes before WIPO and NAF. He is also a member of the Whois Subcommittee of the Internet Commmittee of the International Trademark Association. The IPKat salutes this new and useful blog and hopes its author won't forget to keep his eyes on developments in Europe too. Merpel says, I remain convinced that "whois" should be pronounced as a monosyllable ...


Those Ethiopian coffee trade mark licences (see earlier IPKat post here) generated quite a bit of correspondence, together with some valuable information. The IPKat thanks Pauline Tiffen for leading him to this website, which clicks through to lots of factual data, FAQs and the templates for US, EU/UK, Canadian and Australian trade mark licences. Thanks, too, to Elizabeth March for this link to a recent interview with Getachew Mengistie, Director General of the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office.


From the IPKat's friend in Malta Jeanine Rizzo (Fenech and Fenech Advocates) comes the news that Apple has successfully registered the shape of its iPod device in the US (see Wired, linking to the Wall Street Journal). The Wall Street Journal authors state:

"We based our research on public documents in the database of the Patent and Trademark Office, including Apple's trademark applications and correspondence between an attorney representing Apple and the examiner assigned to the case by the Patent and Trademark Office. We did not interview anyone from Apple, and Apple declined to comment on this article".

Says the IPKat, this a reminder, if any were needed, as to how much commercial intelligence you can glean from the official records of jurisdictions in which office practice is transparent. Merpel's a little surprised why Apple declined to comment: many businesses would be happy to pay for a plug in the WSJ -- and it's not as if it's particularly sensitive news.