IP Fashion conference -- and competition!

The IPKat is supporting this year's conference, "Intellectual Property in the Fashion Industry", which will be held in Central London on 23 September. Team blogger Jeremy will be in the chair and there's an exceptionally strong cast of speakers. The principal attractions are as follows:

* IP in the Fashion Sector: an Overview, by Carina Badger, Macfarlanes;

* How far can trade marks protect fashion? Dawn Osborne, Rouse Legal;

* Design Right Issues: Sarah Wright, Olswang

* What sort of contract issues arise from dealing with freelance and employee designers? Vicki Salmon, Eversheds;

* Protection of Fashion in Continental Europe: Estelle Derclaye, University of Nottingham

* Distribution Strategies and Pitfalls: Christopher Stothers, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP

* Shows, Exhibitions and Other Horrors: What ACID Can Do: Dids Macdonald, ACID

* Can You Protect a Style? Jason Rawkins, Taylor Wessing

4.20 Stripes in the Sportswear Sector: adidas under the Microscope: Gino Van Roeyen, Banning, The Netherlands

You can read up on all the juicy bits of biographical detail relating to the speakers, as well as savouring the finer points -- the bullet points -- of each presentation if you click here.

To celebrate his sponsorship of this joyous event the IPKat is conducting a competition, the prize being FREE ADMISSION to this event. The rules of the competition are simple: all you have to do is to write a limerick which starts with the line "There once was a fashionable Kat". Please send it to the IPKat here, with the subject line "Merpel Limerick", by not later than midnight (IPKat Time) on 1 September 2008.

Right: wearing nothing but her necklace and her fur, Miffles wondered why the captions that accompany IPKat blog illustrations are always more titillating than the pictures that accompany them ...

Multiple entries are welcome and the best entries will be posted. Warning: if you are afraid that the publication of your name will cause embarrassment or dismissal from your employment, please tell the IPKat before he has posted it alongside your entry.