Monday miscellany

"How to write an effective IP press release". Bookings for the IPKat's forthcoming two-hour seminar on the theory and practice of this challenging topic are filling up nicely. The seminar runs first on Tuesday 7 September, hosted at the premises of Collyer Bristow, and again on Tuesday 5 October at the London office of Olswang LLP. For further details please click here.


Who is it who is "Assisting, supporting, facilitating, and securing access to intellectual assets as public goods in agriculture for development purposes"? The answer is CAS-IP, the Central Advisory Service on Intellectual Property. The overall goal/vision of CAS-IP is "to enable access and use of CGIAR products for the benefit of the poor through effective IP and technology transfer management". In case you don't know, GGIAR is not a mis-spelling of "cigar' but the Consultative Group on International Agriculture. Getting the picture? No, never mind. As of next month CAS-IP has a new manager: Elise Perset from CIRAD (Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement). The IPKat wishes Elise the best of luck in her new role and looks forward to hearing great things from this very important but little-understood corner of the IP world.

Should foreign trade mark applicants be required to engage the services of a professional representative from within the jurisdiction? The IPKat raised this question late on Friday, but it has already attracted a few comments and this post from Filemot on SOLO IP which has offers food for thought in terms of both practice and principle. If this is a subject that stirs you, don't forget to have your say!

Following the dissolution of the UK's Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy (SABIP) last month, its research agenda has been integrated into the research agenda of the Intellectual Property Office's Economics, Research and Evidence unit, led by Chief Economist Tony Clayton. Meanwhile, here's a brief document summarising SABIP's activities past and pending. The IPKat will be watching with interest to see what happens.

Founded in late October 2009 last year, the jiplp weblog is delighted to record its 300th email subscriber. This blog provides a bridge between the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP), its readers and writers and IPKat team member Jeremy, who edits the journal, is mighty pleased to see it thrive.

No doubt inspired by the CIPA Congress menu competition (here), the IPKat's friend Tony McStea has sent him the following lyrics, for a rousing song which may be sung with gusto to a well-known French tune. It goes as follows:

Allons, conseils de la PI
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!
Entre-nous on aura de la bon bouffe
Un niveau de cuisine élevé
Un niveau de cuisine élevé
Entrons tous dans la salle à manger
Où se trouvent beaucoup de bons plats
Puis asseyons, mangeons beaucoup
Jusqu’à ce qu’on est plein à craquer
Aux fourchettes, congressien(ne)s !
Aux tables, compagnons !
Mangeons, buvons
Q’un vin si pur sorte de nos oreilles !

The Google Translate version of this makes merry reading too. Merpel, who is not even as good as the IPKat, had to be told that PI was the French for IP. She also continues to believe that 'cuisine élevé' is the French term for an airline meal.