Monday miscellany

If you liked the Ten Helpful Hints for IP Writers which appeared here on the jiplp weblog on Friday 12 February, you may want to check out last Friday's sequel, Ten More Tips for IP Writers, here. The IPKat understands that a further ten tips will be published this coming Friday, if their author has not been done away with by the anti-pedantry squad in the meantime.

Readers whose interest in IP focuses on standard-setting, and all that that entails, may wish to take a peep at Talkstandards, "an active online community where developers, researchers, policymakers and other interested parties can share ideas and collaborate on the global standards system". A browse through the site reveals that IP is among the many issues addressed by its six-man team -- which includes Allen Dixon, MD, International Intellectual Property & Technology Consulting (IIPTC).

Dinesh Vadhia, ceo and founder of Xyggy Patent, writes to tell the IPKat that the new release of his patent search tool now makes finding relevant patents easier with its "unique drag and drop search box" -- so long as they are US patents granted from 1976 onwards, that is. The idea is simple and attractive:

"Enter keywords to begin your patent search and Xyggy will find patents that are relevant. Now, drag a patent of interest from the results into the search box and watch how the relevance of the results changes significantly. When patents are dragged into the search box, Xyggy discovers what the query patents have in common and automatically learns how to find relevant patents to the query patents. You can drag multiple patents of interest into the search box".

Brands and Responsible Business is the title of a 64-page report commissioned by the British Brands Group in 2009 from Fleishman-Hillard. The objective was to conduct a study on the investment made by brands into responsible business practices and the developing partnership approach between Government and brands to deliver public policy goals. This included a review of projects such as Change4Life and the Campaign for Smarter Drinking. The report was published last week and you can read the whole lot here. It comprises a series of essays which identify the significant investments in responsible activity, how such activity now lies at the core of business activity and how branded companies are increasingly partnering with Government to support the delivery of public policy. Says the IPKat, this is a valuable and upbeat assessment of the benefit that can be conferred on consumers, on brand owners and on the community as a whole when a culture of responsible business manifests itself. Well done, all round! Merpel notes that the Chewing Gum Action Group has raised awareness of the responsible disposal of gum from 37% to 42%: this is a good start, but there's still some way to go ...