Wednesday whimsies

Are you thinking of becoming a patent or trade mark attorney ...? If so, your starting point might just be this link to some relevant information on the UK Intellectual Property Office website. Sadly, adds the Kat, there is no neatly mapped out career path for would-be innovators and inventors, although their condition is believed to be treatable if diagnosed sufficiently early.

... or would you rather be Dean?  The search is on for a new Dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center/University of New Hampshire (UNH) School of Law. The new Dean "will lead us in fully realizing our vision: as an innovator and leader in practice-based legal education, in expanding our preeminence as a center for intellectual property law education, research, and scholarship, as a leader in social justice education and scholarship ..."  If you want to take up the challenge, click here for further details. For details of some distinguished Deans click here, here and here.

The annual migration of Important Intellectual Property Personages will soon be underway, if the IPKat's information is right. The annual meetings season for WIPO member states begin on 20 September with a "two-day high-level ministerial segment" on the theme of "Innovation, Growth and Development: The Role of Intellectual Property and Member States’ National Experiences". Some 70 ministers have confirmed their participation in the event.

Right: in the interest of economy and as a gesture of solidarity with the poor taxpayers of their respective countries, Ministers have agreed to ration themselves to just one tomato with their langoustine.

Officially this is "reflecting the importance of intellectual property in senior policy-making spheres". Ministers will also enjoy two cultural events -- one organized with the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco and the other with the Government of the Sultanate of Oman. "The Moroccan event features the various facets of the country’s rich cultural heritage. The Oman exhibition showcases the multiplicity of the country’s craft industries". While the Kat has his thoughts about the functional utility of these events (words like 'waste', 'time and money', 'gravy' and 'train' float around in no particular order), there is some good news: the full proceedings of the will be webcast here, so the Ministers will at least have to go through the motions of reflecting the importance of IP, if not of themselves ...

Watch out, there's a moot about!  The IPKat has learned from Stuart Baran that the Oxford IP Research Centre's next International IP Moot (which Stuart chairs) takes place on 18 and 19 March 2011. This is a major highlight of the IP calendar: it attracts competitors of the highest standard, from many different countries. In recent years, teams have participated not just from Europe but from Australia, the US, Canada,  Sri Lanka, India, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Left: artist's impression of what moots were like when "What's in a name?" was not yet the most hackneyed phrase in the trade mark and branding lawyer's stock of handy cliches ...

Our judges are practitioners and academics of the highest calibre, mostly in the UK but one or two from beyond [Merpel sympathises: she knows of some judges who have been a bit beyond it too].  Friday night is "Conversazione" evening -- four short talks [in Italian?, wonders the Kat] given on a deliberately open-ended question.  This year's question is "W***'s in a n***?" [will some kind reader tell Stuart and his Oxford colleagues why the Kat is so reluctant to see that phrase?].  Previous speakers include Daniel Alexander QC; Lord Gill, the Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland; Professor Rochelle Dreyfuss and the lovable, recently-retired Michael Fysh QC. The dinner that accompanies this event has rituals which are so exciting that the Kat fears to mention them here for fear of giving his readers palpitations.  This year's moot problem and rules are here and here. For more details, or to enter your team, contact Stuart now.