Friday fantasies

Friday's the day for checking the IPKat's Forthcoming Events page. There's always something coming up, whatever your interest in IP.  You can access the Forthcoming Events page by clicking here.

New brooms sweep clean ...  The Intellectual Property Institute (IPI) is pleased to announce that Alison Brimelow CBE, former President of the European Patent Office (EPO), takes over from Ian Harvey as the new Chair of the IPI Board.  Ian can heave a huge sigh of relief now,. having carried the burden for the past decade.  This member of the Kat team, who has been active within the IPI for more years than he can recall, thanks Ian for his efforts, his cheerful demeanour and for his genuinely positive attitude towards the advantages which intellectual property law is capable of conferring if it's properly used.  He also wishes Alison, who sparkled as head of the UK Intellectual Property Office before taking on the EPO, the best of luck in her new role [Merpel's very excited too.  She thought Alison was brilliant in Shrek ...].

Another change at the top has transpired at the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA), where the Presidential term of office of Alasdair Poore has come to an end and Tim Roberts has stepped up to replace him.  Alasdair is known to PatLit readers as the man behind the long-running saga of Cautious Co v IPOff Ltd, the case of the Robotic Octopus, which has served to illustrate the functionality of the recently restyled Patents County Court in England and Wales.  Thanks, Alasdair -- and good luck, Tim!

You can't keep the Americans out of the act.  Following the retirement of Marybeth Peters, the appointment has been announced of Maria Pallante as the new Head of the US Copyright Office. Maria (portrayed, left, in front of a selection of volumes of Nimmer on Copyright) has been effectively running the show since Marybeth stepped down.   In a world increasingly dominated by cats and women, Maria joins Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel at the pinnacle of IP power in the US.  Says Merpel, what's the betting that David Kappos's successor at the helm of the US Patent and Trademark Office will be a woman too? 

Watch those deadlines

Around the blogs. "Trademarks and Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines" is the cry of Rebecca Dimaridis, writing here for the Totally Legal weblog. In short, she explains, "If you want to pursue a career that involves or includes registering trade marks for clients around the world, you had better like deadlines, or get to like them".  Linked to this Thursday's forthcoming Advocate General's Opinion in Case C-125/10 Merck v German Patent Office, on the vexed question of zero-term patent extensions, The SPC Blog has launched a poll to see whether readers think the AG will say "yes" or "no" [hold on, says Merpel, there probably isn't a question in the world that anyone who works for the European Court of Justice can answer with just one word ...].    "Permanent injunctions as punitive damages" in US patent law is Professor Paul Heald's controversial suggestion in a piece which PatLit has spotted here.  In the world of European trade marks, the admirable Laetitia Lagarde has been carrying the Class 46 team on her shoulders this week with some very useful summaries of General Court decisions on Community trade mark issues, including those arising from the (non)similarity of E-PLEX and EPILEX, here.