Friday firebrands

The IPKat's 'Forthcoming Events' feature, which you will find in the left-hand side-bar of this weblog's front page, contains some fresh entries which you may not yet have seen. Don't forget to check them out.


When mentioning the IPRoo blog last week, the IPKat commented on how many animals are featured on IP blogs. He unpardonably forgot to mention the illustrious platypus, nobly stepping into the limelight as the mascot of the Australian Trade Marks Blog of the affable Nick Weston. Sorry, platypuses (is that the correct plural?) everywhere ...!


Another new IP blog: this time a trilingual one (Spanish and Portuguese in addition to English). It's IP Tango and it's being run by IPKat team blogger Jeremy together with Alicante's Aurelio Lopez-Tarruella Martinez and a panel of invited friends which will be growing over the coming weeks. A sort of cousin to Afro-IP and Class 46, IP Tango offers a regional slant, giving coverage of intellectual property news, case law and commercial developments in Latin America. Enjoy!


There's a new set of Patent Cooperation Treaty fees coming into effect on 1 July, according to PCT Notification No. 189 ("Amendments to the Schedule of Fees annexed to the Regulations"). So if you are an international patent protection-seeker and you want to benefit from the old fees, you've only got a week or so in which to do so.


Talking of new fees, the Community Plant Variety Office has just published details of its amendments to annual fees and fees payable in respect of technical examinations. The new scheme, which kicks in on 1 Junuary 2009 - a public holiday throughout the European Union - also makes it easier to pay, even accepting 'payment cards' (which the IPKat assumes to be credit and debit cards, unless someone puts him right).


The IPKat's friend, scholar and renowned blogger Birgit Clark, has drawn his attention to the stew into which the Lancashire Constabulary has got itself over unlawful performances. The Performing Right Society (PRS) has accused the Chief Constable of Lancashire of infringing copyright by allowing music to be played in the county's 34 police stations. The PRS is seeking an injunction plus damages for copyright infringement. Helpfully, the IPKat suggest some items that the Lancastrian law enforcers might like to listen to here and here [best listened to with the sound turned off] -- and some which they may prefer to avoid here and here.


Creativity Stifled? Bournemouth University's Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) has orchestrated a letter to the President Barroso of the European Commission, challenging the notion that any case can be made for the extension of the term of copyright in sound recordings from the present 50-year norm to a whopping 95 years -- as recently mooted by Commissioner Charlie McCreevy (see earlier post here). The multisignatory letter, which enjoys the support of some very respectable names within the IP community (some of whom the IPKat is too modest to name), is accompanied by a statement, Creativity Stifled?, which seeks to lay bare the issues in clear and persuasive terms.