Friday fantasies

Can't find that newsy item on the IPKat? It might be on one of the Kat's cousins, a list of specialist blogs you can find in the side bar.

Have you checked the IPKat's list of Forthcoming Events? There's plenty coming up, as you can see from the side-bar on the IPKat's front page.

If you're concerned by cookies, take heart: Rosie Burbidge, a new recruit to the Datonomy blog-squad is doing something about them. Having spent many hours contemplating the data protection issues, Rosie has decided to make cookies more appealing -- she's compiling a collection of recipes for cookies (as in the US English terminology for 'biscuits') and hopes to publish the best of them in the Datonomy Cookie Cookbook, a useful research resource which will be made available online in due course. If you have a good cookie recipe, email Rosie here (she's hoping to get recipes from at least every country within the European Union, if not beyond).

The amazing thing about the Competition Law Association, whose meetings the IPKat has been known to attend (and even address ...) is how it provides a safe environment for IP lawyers and competition lawyers to come together and discuss the topics on which their interests intersect without actually killing one another. Anyway, the CLA has an exciting seminar coming up next Wednesday evening at which Henry Carr QC, who represented the famous perfume brands against the smell-alikes in L'Oréal v Bellure, is speaking on the IP/unfair competition aspects of the ECJ's ruling in the comfy climate of Milbank Tweed's London office. Details here.

The IPKat says "thank you" to his friend and respected colleague Duaa Izzidien, for introducing him to the Logo Board game which, with seasonal shopping as an imminent risk, looks most appealing. Merpel's not so happy though: she has sniffed around the outside of the box and hasn't detected any evidence of her favourite brand of cat food ...

Are you clever, experienced in IP and have some time on your hands? The Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice is still in need of a few more peer reviewers. If you think you might be the right person, please email IPKat team member Jeremy here and give him a brief note of your background and interests. This role may suit someone who has recently retired and is pining for IP, or who has recently lost a job but wants to stay in touch. Further details of JIPLP can be found on OUP's website here.

Keep an eye on QUEDOS: that's the catchy acronym of the Queen Mary Centre for Enterprise and Development Opportunities in Society. You can find out lots more about it here. Its Academic Director is the IPKat's friend, the respected IP scholar Professor Johanna Gibson, and the Kats wish it the best of luck.

The IPKat thanks his friend Theo Verlaan for sending him this precious judgment from a US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Bridgeport Music v UMG Recordings: it relates to copyright in a song entitled Atomic Dog, and in particular infringement of the "Bow wow" refrain, which goes "“Bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yea” (briefly noted on the 1709 Blog here). Whatever many folk feel about copyright lawyers, the Kat is sure that George Clinton must have a soft spot for them.

Gratitude goes to veteran IPKat reader Lee Curtis for this link to this CNN Money item, "Porsche Cayman vs. Crocs Cayman", about a slightly stupid spat between a distinguished manufacturer of to-die-for motor cars and the maker of popular plastic footwear. The IPKat would never have bought the Crocs Cayman shoes were it not for their association with Porsche. He was most disappointed that, putting them through their paces on the open road, he couldn't get much more than 3 mph (4.8 kph) out of them. Mind you, their fuel economy was terrific.

Right: "My other Porsche is a Crock ..."

Around the blogs. The 1709 Blog has got an English translation of last week's Norwegian District Court decision not to order ISP Telenor to sever online access to The Pirate Bay. Patent litigation specialist weblog PatLit, no doubt buoyed by the recent batch of posts on European and UK patent litigation reforms, has just welcomed its 400th email subscriber. Patently-O is running a survey on attitudes here towards how disruptive a shift to first-to-file might be for US patent practice.