Friday fantasies

Please remember to check out the IPKat's fabled, fascinating and fulfilling Forthcoming Events list -- there's something there for (almost) everyone!

"Future Plans". The forthcoming MARQUES Class 46 seminar to review and discuss the Study on the Overall Functioning of the European Trade Mark System which the European Commission commissioned from the Max Planck Institute will definitely be packed to the rafters.  This event, which is free and carries 2.5 CPD points, takes place on the afternoon of Tuesday 5 April.  When the registration list is full, which should happen some time in the next few hours, a reserve list will be opened so that any gaps left by cancellations can be swiftly filled.  European trade mark organisation MARQUES has set up an online registration system -- you can check the programme and register here.  See you there?

Blog seeks logo -- can you help?  Since its inception the 1709 Blog, which covers all sorts of copyright issues, hasn't had its own logo but has simply made do with the portrait of Queen Anne, the monarch in whose reign the first British copyright legislation was passed.  But now the team feels it's time for a change.  The blog's appearance will shortly be refreshed by the adoption of a new template and, to commemorate this auspicious event, a brand new logo is sought.  A prize, in the form of a copy of International Copyright by Paul Goldstein and Bernt Hugenholtz, will go to the best effort received by midnight on Sunday 3 April.  Please send your entry to Jeremy here with the subject line "1709 logo", and remember to let the blog have an irrevocable non-exclusive licence to use it on the blog and for its promotions ...

"Sales are very small"
(para.193)

In "Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die, Too Long to Read ..." the IPKat made a few observations about the Patents County Court ruling in Dame Vivienne Westwood v Anthony Edward Knight, the first time that court has been able to run a case under its exciting new procedures.  The Kat was so keen to write on it that he posted his piece before the judgment had been made generally available on the excellent BAILII database.  Well, the decision is now well and truly BAILII'd and you can access it, at no cost and scarcely any inconvenience, here.

"Bye Bye Blackbird" is the name of a classically popular song, but it was it was the departure of a bird of a different feather that was warmly and congenially celebrated earlier this week in the Royal Courts of Justice.  Taking his leave of the Court, Sir Robin Jacob is now making the short migratory flight north to University College London's IBIL -- where we all wish him luck.


A couple of patent-y things:  PatLit has now produced a list of the first 20 in the series of PCC Pages on the Patents County Court in England and Wales.  The SPC Blog has recently posted a series of features on litigation around Europe over patent and supplementary protection certificate protection within the context of Valsartan, which is almost as good at treating high blood pressure as litigation against Novartis is as a means of inducing it in the first place.  You can check the blog out here.

"Unreliable Evidence" is coming to a radio near you next Wednesday, 30 March, from 8 to 8.45pm. The subject is "Intellectual Property".  The details: "Clive Anderson and some of the country's top lawyers and judges discuss legal issues of the day. The second programme in the series looks at the law and intellectual property. Humans are an extraordinarily creative species, but can't always agree about the legal rights relating to that creativity. This programme looks at how our courts attempt to resolve disputes over trade marks, inventions, music and literature; in fact over everything from life-saving drugs to sweater designs. Do our copyright, patent and other laws create the right balance between the protection of entrepreneurship and the potential benefit to the public of less regulated distribution of our creative output?" If you think this programme is going to give you an answer, don't forget to tune in to Radio 4.

Looking for a job?  EPSO is organising open competitions to select administrators in six fields: European public administration, law, economics, audit, finance, statistics.  What? You haven't heard of EPSO?  Er, nor has the IPKat, but he now knows that the acronym stands for "European Personnel Selection Office" and not, as Merpel had erroneously hypothesised,  Extraordinarily Profligate Salaries Offered ...

Never underestimate the
curative value of hops when
it comes to treating
"alements"

Another update on the currently quickly changing face of Australian patent law comes from the IPKat's friend Anna Feros (Shepherd & Wedderburn).  She tells the Kat:

"By the end of 2011, the Australian Government will introduce legislation to allow the Federal Court to grant compulsory licences to manufacture and export patented pharmaceuticals to countries trying to deal with epidemics and other types of health crises.

The new system implements an international agreement on public health in the World Trade Organization, amending the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Protocol). The only country to have notified that such a compulsory licence has been granted to export to date is Canada in 2007".