Friday fibrillations

At last count the number of forthcoming events on the IPKat's side bar now stands at 52. Don't forget to check them out. Free events are blue. Events supported by the IPKat are red. Discounts for IPKat readers are purple.


Around the Blogs: the IPKat can inform his copyright-minded readers that The 1709 Blog, launched earlier this week, has already sailed past two markers: the 100 email subscriber mark (which it hit within 24 hours of launch) and the 50 RSS feeder tally.   Meanwhile the bilingual specialist Latin-American weblog IP Tango has now gained its 150th email subscriber. 

Feel the fear and do it anyway: this post from Leo Barbauta of the Zenhabits blog is a must-read for anyone who likes to debate the old issue about whether trade mark law lets people parcel up bits of ordinary language and walk away with it.  Thank you, fellow Class 46 blogger Tomasz Rychlicki, for the link.  For those who prefer copyright to trade marks, the same site has an Uncopyright notice which has attracted over 300 comments, many of them printable.

Tipped off by long-term friend and reader Guy Selby-Lowndes, the IPKat brings the conceptually related news of another Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) FAMILY FEAST battle. The trade mark examiner who allowed this registration through must be hoping he isn't named and shamed on this weblog. Anyway, last time, it was a pub in Yorkshire that felt the heat of Colonel Sanders' wrath (see earlier post here).  This time it's The Titanic pizzeria in Carnoustie, Scotland.  The Kats feel that their readers need no instruction in what to feel about this, leaving the last word to IP lawyer John MacKenzie (Pinsent Masons), who is quoted as saying: "I think that, with a bit of sensible discussion, KFC will quietly back down. They have made their point".

A hat-tip to Simon Haslam (Abel & Imray) for dredging up some BBC news of a fearful dispute Down Under between the makers of Iced Vo-Vos and Iced Dough-Vos. The latter are peddled in Australia by the US Krispy Kreme chain. Unlike the Iced Vo-Vo " ... much loved by many generations of Australians ... topped with pink fondant, strawberry jam and sprinkled with coconut"), the allegedly infringing product is part of a "limited edition of Australian-themed treats" and is "filled with raspberry jam and topped with pink icing and coconut".  Says the IPKat, I think the parties are more likely to appeal than are their products ...

Thank you, MARQUES-man and longstanding IPKat friend David Goldring (Novagraaf), for sending this link to what must surely be the longest specification ever for a trade mark application.  If you paste it into a Microsoft Word document, you'll discover that it runs for no fewer than 177 pages.  There are novels shorter than this ...

If you want the Indian Patent Office to provide more information for the benefit of those who use its increasingly important services, support Shamnad Basheer's campaign by signing the i-petition here.