Wednesday whimsies

Can you pause for a moment and spare a thought for one of our brethren. Trade mark and IP enthusiast Jean Léon Pire, formerly with Gevers and now with its sister company Valipat, is bravely facing major surgery today. Many of you will know him as a regular INTA participant, an affable networker and a cheerful soul with a warm personality and a keen sense of humour. The IPKat wishes Jean a speedy and full recovery and hopes that he will soon be restored to his wife and cherished companion Christiane, for whom we should also spare a thought at this moment. Good wishes can be sent to 3 avenue des Perdreaux, B-1341 Ottignies (Belgium).

Are you on gardening leave? If so, here's just the position for you: the European Union's Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) is seeking to appoint a new alternate Chairperson of its Board of Appeal. The candidate must be an EU national, able to work in 1.5 Union languages, "have a university degree in law, or a recognised qualification in law, obtained as recognition for proven experience in the field of intellectual property or plant variety registration", and have some vaguely relevant experience.  Pay is EUR 2 000 per case and EUR 500 for time spent travelling to and from Angers, plus travel expenses and daily expenses.

It seemed like the right forum, but
the CIPA Xmas Party took its toll ...

Around the blogs.  PatLit's second PCC Page was published yesterday here. This piece, kindly furnished by Alasdair Poore as President of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA), urges readers considering patent litigation in England and Wales to ask whether the Patents County Court is the right forum for them. Ben Challis's "Trading Places - a Fairy Story" (on the 1709 Blog) is worth a read: it neatly contrasts the fortunes of content provider EMI with content deliverer Apple here. Finally, UK readers who are curious to know how our own domestic copyright legislation matches up against ACTA may want to take a look at the Technollama's succinct summary here.

Climate change: not yet blamed on IP ...

Getting very excited about  IP these days is the IPKat's friend Enrico Bonadio (University of Abertay Dundee), who informs the IPKat of one of his latest articles, "Climate Change and Intellectual Property" (European Journal of Risk Regulation, March 2010, p.72), which is conveniently available on SSRN here.  According to the abstract, this article first highlights the poor results obtained by the 2009 Copenhagen Conference with reference to Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs), particularly climate technologies. Enrico stresses that the Copenhagen Accord makes no specific reference to intellectual property rights as a necessary tool to stimulate the transfer of climate technologies, especially to developing countries; in certain cases, though, IPRs can obstruct the dissemination across countries of ESTs, as is apparently confirmed by (i) how IPRs legislation is devised in industrialized countries (e.g. the Bayh-Dole Act in the US) and (ii) a sharp increase international patent litigation in this field. Nonsense, says the IPKat, there's nothing wrong with IPRs: either the evidence or the conclusions must be wrong!

Legal scholarship starts
early these days

The IPKat has heard from his learned friend Christopher Stothers (Arnold & Porter) that the details of the 2011 Competition Law Association Essay Prize competition have just been announced. A prize of £1,000 is to be awarded for an essay of up to 5,000 words submitted by a student, trainee solicitor, pupil barrister or devil barrister (from Scotland) on the following topic:

Is the Digital Economy Act 2010 the most effective and proportionate way to reduce online piracy?

The closing date for entries is 28 February 2011 and further details can be found here. Opposition to the Digital Economy Act here, here and here. Support here and here.