Friday fantasies

As sure as Saturday follows Friday, the weekly reminder to check the Forthcoming Events list in the IPKat's sidebar follows the point at which intellectual creativity among the Kats' community gives way to end-of-week fatigue ... But do take a good look at what's on offer. You won't be disappointed!


The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has now gone live with its new World Intellectual Property Day (WIPD 2010) web pages, which you can contemplate at your leisure here. The day itself is 26 April which, this time round, is a Monday. The theme for 2010 is "Innovation -- Linking the World" [Linking the world? That must be something to do with file-sharing, speculated Merpel]. Please remember to celebrate this date. If you're organising any fun events, let the IPKat know and he'll help to publicise them. Famous creators of IP who were born on that date include Tonoyuki Tanaka (creator of Godzilla), Spanish Nobel laureate author Vicente Aleixandre and French artist Eugene Delacroix. Those dying on that date include Last Exit to Brooklyn author Hubert Selby Jr, comic actress Lucille Ball and karate king Ōyama Masutatsu.


Around the blogs. A blog recently drawn to the Kats' attention, with the unpromisingly cumbersome but horridly surreal title Trademark Blog of the Trademark Lawyer's Mind, is piloted by Beverly Hills trademark attorney Michael Cohen. TM fans will surely want to check it out. Meanwhile, congratulations are due to the IP Finance weblog on the occasion of its reaching the 700 mark for its email subscribers. Data protection weblog Datonomy has also got something to celebrate, having just hit the 200 email subscriber mark. Well done! Finally, the MARQUES-based Class 46 weblog is conducting a poll to see what readers think of some proposed new names for that organisation's newsletter. If you want to vote, or just want to see what the proposals are, you can find them on that blog's sidebar.

Rest in Peace. This week the world has lost two talented creators.Walter Frederick Morrison died at the ripe old age of ninety. He was the inventor of the moulded flying plastic disc, sometimes erroneously referred to by the trade mark FRISBEE. We also mourn the passage of Alexander McQueen, a fashion designer who was sometimes shocking but never dull. He was also a keen believer in the value of trade mark registration.

The ONEL/OMEL Benelux IP Office saga (see earlier posts here and here) continues. Thank you, Michel Rorai (Unilever) for drawing the attention of the IPKat to the English version of the statement of the Hungarian Patent Office that it supports the BOIP's position that the use of a Community trade mark in a single European Union Member State does not constitute 'genuine use' of that trade mark in opposition proceedings.

An eager reader has emailed the IPKat to ask him if there is a convenient, up-to-date website that lists all the Protected Designations of Origin (PDOs), Protected Geographical Indications (PGIs) and Traditional Specialities Guaranteed (TSGs) that have received protection under European Union law, with hyperlinks to (i) the Regulations that have enacted their protection and (ii) their specifications, so that any trader can easily find out if he is in danger of infringing any of these fast-proliferating appellations when he either names his own product or seeks to sell someone else's?

Right: Provolone del Monaco, a recent PDO, comes from Italy, not Monaco

The IPKat has no idea, but thinks this is a really good idea. He knows that the Class 46 weblog mentions the grant of these rights from time to time, but a searchable database would be wonderful. Can any reader(s) enlighten him?

If you've not yet had a chance to explore the delights of the February issue of Oxford University Press's monthly Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP), you can at least see the contents -- plus the February 2010 Editorial on climate change and the IP community -- by visiting that journal's weblog here. Incidentally, the journal is very interested in receiving submissions of articles on IP and climate change. If you'd like more information about submitting articles, you can find guidance for authors if you visit the journal's website here. If you want some writing tips of the "what you should avoid" variety, click here.