Friday fantasies

The calendar year is nearly at an end, but 2011 already boasts a fine selection of intellectual property events for you to attend.  Check them out here on the IPKat's Forthcoming Events page.

It's not just infringers who may
be innocent -- designers can be
Innocent too!

Does no-one care whether innocent infringers of design right can be made to pay damages? The UK's Intellectual Property Office is holding a consultation and the Class 99 weblog thought it would conduct a little poll to see what readers think (for details of both the consultation and the poll click here). Readers' responses so far have been sparse. Come on, tell'em what you think!

With the weekend starting,
Tiddles was just too tired to be
properly apathetic

Another example of reader apathy (or IP Fatigue?) is the IPKat's latest competition, for which the prize is complimentary admission to the 2011 Intellectual Property Round-up Conference on 24 January (conference details here). The Kat even thought the competition might be fun: in short, JK Rowling seeks your advice as to the title of the next Harry Potter book (the one she said she'd never write) on how Harry and his friends graduate from Hogwarts and secure gainful employment within in the World Intellectual Property Organization. The title must begin with the words "Harry Potter and the ...", but the rest is up to you. Entries should be emailed to the IPKat here, with the subject line "Potter WIPO". Closing date, 10 January 2011.  So far, the Kat has received no entries at all, which may actually be the result of his inadvertently leaving the subject out of the email subject line.  If you've not yet sent an entry, or indeed have and now know that it hasn't been received, please (re)send.

INTA is coming full speed ahead to India. After several years of sponsoring Roundtable sessions in various sites in India, INTA has announced that, for the first time, it will be sponsoring a full-scale programme, to take place on February 12, 2011, in Mumbai, focusing on trade mark and branding issues within the Indian context. Entitled "Trademark Trailblazers in India", the full-day programme will feature speakers from India and various other countries. This looks like a great opportunity to meet leading trade mark and branding professionals in India as well as to join in the expected lively give and take between speakers and audience on cutting-edge issues. And naturally there is all of India to enjoy either before or after the programme, details of which can be found here.

With those long, boring holidays ahead and nothing to read, take cheer.  The Intellectual Property Office (UK) has published four papers relating to patents commissioned by the late Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy (SABIP) before its dissolution in August:

- "Challenges to the Patent System" by Giuseppina D'Agostino
- "The Impact of the Patent System on SMEs" by Alan Hughes and Andrea Mina
- "Patents and Industrialisation" by Christine MacLeod and Giuseppina D'Agostino
- "Sprucing Up Patent Law" by David Vaver

The full reports are available to download here under "Latest publications".


Finally, belated thanks to Rosie Burbidge for the link that led to this piece published on this weblog on Wednesday on public domain donors.