Friday flourishings

Don't forget to check out the events listed in the IPKat's efficiently-updated 'Forthcoming Events' feature, which occupies a large slice of space on the left-hand side-bar of this weblog's front page. The number of events currently listed is 39. FREE events are listed in an environmentally friendly green.


For those who enjoy biopatents and like cocktails, The SPC Blog is running a competition in conjunction with its sponsorhip of tthe forthcoming C5 conference, Pharma/Biotech Patent Litigation, Amsterdam, Tuesday, 17 February to Wednesday, 18 February 2009. Preliminary details of this event can be inspected here. Details of the comp and how to enter it are here.

The IPKat wishes he'd heard of this event before but, since he didn't, he's telling readers about it now. It's the first Links & Law Meeting, which takes place in Munich next Thursday, October 30. Links & Law, the brainchild of Dr Stephan Ott, has provided a great service for its readers. Everyone who wants to talk about internet law or search engines is welcome at this event, but be sure to reply here.

If you want to attend IPKat team blogger Jeremy's "Writing skills for IP" intensive afternoon tutorial on the afternoon of Monday 3 November, there's some good news for you. Three people who planned to attend (or were being sent, against their will) have been shunted to the 1 December or 8 January sessions on account of work commitments (at least, that's their excuse), leaving late vacancies .

Right: The Scribe Cat (by Appaloosa)

The venue is Conway Hall, Central London. The fee is £85 plus VAT. You get an afternoon's slog plus a piece of marked homework. If you want more details, email Jeremy here.


From the IPKat's friend Thorsten Lauterbach (Lecturer in Law, Aberdeen Business School) comes news of a ruling handed down by the German Bundesgerichtshof on 14 October on the publication of photographs of Princess Caroline bon Hannover and her husband Ernst August.

Left: in an attempt to evade the attentions of the paparazzi, Princess Caroline and Ernst August have taken to wearing a variety of disguises. Here they pose incognito in their highly-successful walrus suits ...

It seems that the much-publicised couple complained of the publication of their photographs in various magazines in articles concerning the then life-threatening illness of Ernst August (inflammation of the pancreas), allegations of his intake of alcohol as a reason for the illness and the time taken to recover. These were illustrated with older pictures (showing the couples with drinks in their hands, or with bottles of alcoholic beverages in their vicinity), plus in one instance a more recent photo. The publishers asked to have rulings in favour of the couple in all lower instances set aside, but the Federal Court of Justice sided with the noble couple. The court reiterated the need to embark on a balancing act between the interests in and rights of privacy of the individuals and the freedom of the press/expression of the publishers, based on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. Since the couple's interest in their own privacy is paramount and there is no countervailing reason for the public to know this information, the intrusion into the right of the couple in their own image is "verboten". It did not matter that Ernst August had given interviews on his ill health in a couple of instances previous to or shortly after the publication of the photos -- this could not justify the intrusion into the general right to protect the personality/privacy of the persons on the photographs. Says Thorsten, this decision arguably strengthens the rights of individuals vis-à-vis publications of photographs in Germany.