Friday fandango

PLEASE don't forget to check out the IPKat's Forthcoming events side bar. At the time of posting this medley, the number of events on offer stands at a moderate 36. As usual, FREE events are coded in BLUE.


Some small landmarks in the IP blogososphere. The highly recondite SPC Blog has continued its improbable long march to popularity for patent extension folk and now has an email circulation of 350. 

Right: The SPC Blog is for intellectuals only ...

Meanwhile PatLit, the weblog for enthusiasts of patent litigation, has just edged past the 250 email subscriber mark. Incidentally there are still two days left to vote on PatLit's poll on the thorny question: "Given the current state of play in the pharmaceutical sector, where would you invest your pension fund?", the choices being (i) the proprietary pharma sector, (ii) the pharma generics sector or (iii) lottery tickets. 

A young man currently living in Hungary has written to ask if any of the IPKat's readers in the United Kingdom have any work for him in the field of patent/trade mark/design administration. He has worked for the Hungarian Patent Office for six years as a formal examiner, his scope of responsibilities including the formal examination of PCT applications entering the national phase in Hungary (designated office work), plus receiving office work relating to European patent, Community trade mark and Community design applications. He was also in charge of processing Sequence Listings submitted in an electronic format, using an in-house developed IT programme. While at the Patent Office he completed a two-year training course, receiving a state-accredited Higher-grade Certificate in Intellectual (Industrial) Property Rights Protection. Being a Hungarian national, he needs no labour permit to work in the UK: all he needs is to get registered as an employee in the UK, based on a declaration from his employer, once a signed contract of employment has been received. If you'd like to contact him, email the IPKat here, and the Kat will forward it to him.

The IPKat has a soft spot for the GeekLawyer's Blog. GeekLawyer (left), whose potent combination of outspoken honesty and irredeemably bad taste makes him unquestionably the Jade Goody of the IP blog world, displayed his sensitive side this week with this report and podcast on his friend Bill Patry's SCL talk in memory of the late Sir Hugh Laddie, whose potent combination of pungent wit and guts to deploy it to maximum effect made him ... well, never mind.  

This lovely piccie (right) has been sent in by the vigilant Peter Hirtle (Cornell).  It is the work of Carolyn E. Wright, a.k.a. Photo Attorney, whose website has some lovely animal shots.  Ms Wright is an attorney who works for photographers, as her name suggests, though Merpel was for a while under the impression that she was a photographer who works for attorneys.  Tufty adds: since attorneys usually have more money than photographers, it's probably more profitable to be a photographer who works for an attorney than vice versa.


Dennis Peterson, of patents. com, has been excitedly telling the IPKat all about his patent search services, which include searchable indexed patent pages available in 15 native languages [rather fewer than the European Union has to cope with, notes the IPKat, but a pretty useful start -- and there's probably not a lot of patent-related material that's available exclusively in Maltese].  Peter adds: "It’s a source for patent data, analytic tools and provides a hosted community platform enabling users to connect to generate business opportunities, including the licensing/sale of patent".  It's also a pretty easily-remembered business name.

Finally, the IPKat just wants to say "hi" to a new book. The tome in question is Patent Law and Theory, edited by Toshiko Takenaka and published this month by Edward Elgar's Research Handbooks in Intellectual Property series.  Modesty forbids the IPKat from mentioning that team blogger is the series editor and that he wrote a chapter in it too. Details of this book can be gleaned from it's web page here and you can read about its launch seminar here.