Friday features

Don't forget to check the IPKat's Forthcoming events list in the left-hand side bar. As of the time of posting, the list covered 43 events, from a variety of countries and on a wide range of subjects. Blue events are FREE to attend.


The IPKat is celebrating another little milestone. The blog's webcounter shows that in February it received 78,069 casual visits -- that's in addition to the 2,870 email subscribers and getting on for 2,000 RSS feeders. 78,069 is the highest number of such visits in a calendar month, though the Kats are slightly disappointed that February has only 28 days or the figure would have been higher. The IPKat says thanks to all his readers for continuing to visit this blog and for their comments, leads, ideas and general support. We couldn't have done any of this without you!

Mark your diaries: 17 April is the day that judgment is expected in the Pirate Bay copyright infringement (see earlier post here, guested by Tara Train).   The Kat (and many others) will be keeping an eye out for it.  

Left and right: two ways of looking at Pirate Bay, but the court will only opt for one of them

Thanks to Edward Farrington (Valea) for this information and for this link to the so-called Medina Report, which specifically names Pirate Bay, and calls it an "internet site which illegally disseminates works on line" (scroll down to the penultimate paragraph).

Midnight on Sunday is the deadline for entries to the haiku competition for which the prize is complimentary registration for CLT's conference on IP in the Educational Sector, 19 March 2009.  Details of the competition and the conference can be found by clicking here and scrolling down to the second item).

Bound volumes of Sweet & Maxwell's European Copyright and Design Reports for 2008 have now been sent to subscribers. If you haven't got yours yet, you should be doing so soon.


A reader writes: "Do you happen to have any useful information at your fingertips, or know about any valuable resources, that could be helpful to a friend who is writing a dissertation on music in China? A large section of the dissertation is concerned with the current copyright laws in China, and their implications for composers" If readers can recommend any English-language literature on Chinese copyright that is aimed at the non-lawyer, or at least fairly free of legal jargon, can they please email the IPKat here and let him know. Thanks!

Short items

* David Nelms (Potter Clarkson) has drawn the Kat's attention to the European Patent Office IPscore D-I-Y patent valuation pack here.  More details will be posted on IP Finance tomorrow.

* John Blake (Brookes Batchellor) was first to spot this spat between the London Eye and its distant competitor, the shortly-to-be-renamed Nottingham Eye.

* All the way from Norway, via Solvår Winnie Finnanger (Patent Office), comes news of ice-cream company Henning Olsen (sounds more like a law firm, the Kat thinks) which has already launched its new ice-creams for the summer – icepod.  The Norwegian Industrial Property Office accepted the application to register icepod for (inter alia) ice creams in 2007, with no opposition on Apple's part, but speculation remains as to whether Apple might yet take legal action (see the newspaper Dagbladet here.

* Via Annsley Merelle Ward (a trainee solicitor with Gallant Macmillan LLP) comes further news of the ferment in the US over the reintroduction this week of the Patent Reform Act of 2009 yesterday. The Bill seeks to provide mechanisms for a more cost-effective patent system, from filing to litigation costs. Not everyone welcomes it, as this note on PatLit suggests. The Senate Judiciary Committee's reality TV show, “Patent Reform in the 11th Congress: Legislation and Recent Court Decisions” can be viewed live here this Tuesday 10 March.

* At the IPKat's disposal is Benoit Tabaka (PriceMinister.com), who draws attention to a study by that onlike marketplace with regard to anti-counterfeiting measures. Based on the analysis of all detections made by the PriceMinister anti-counterfeiting team during 2008, the study's main conclusions can be viewed from the slide show here, with pictures here.