Monday miscellany

After a long, hard day on the road, there's nothing that relaxes this Kat more than firing up his faithful desktop and burrowing furiously into the heaving pile of emails -- naturally in reverse chronological order -- in the hope of turning chaos into a pale imitation of good order. So now, having done with the driving, the delving and the deletions, he turns his attention at last to the main matter of the day -- the Monday Miscellany.

First up for the Kat's attention is something so ephemeral, sweet and so fragile that one could hardly imagine how even the most enforceable intellectual property rights might keep it under control. For those who are so minded, it is possible to follow @365musicTweets. As composer Mikel Chamizo explains, "365 Musical Tweets A daily musical tweet from the 1st of January to the 31 of December 2011. Each composition has a maximum extension of 140 notes and reflects my daily life". Mikel opts for the benefits of both copyright and patronage. States a message on his site: "© 365 musical tweets and all the music it contains are copyright of Mikel Chamizo. Sponsored by the Baskische Musikvereinigung".

Teotihuacan: did Mexico inspire
the legendary Toblerone brand?

Mr Maza from Mexico has written proudly to tell the Kat ollective how in his lovely country the local Intellectual Property Institute has been bestowing "famous" status to some "trade marks of popular companies" with the idea of protecting such marks in all classes so that no-one else can use them. He adds: "I think this is the only country that gives this certification".  The IPKat thinks not and wonders whether his readers would like to help compile a list of countries that compile lists of famous marks.  Merpel adds: Mexico may be the only company that grants "famous mark" status to more than one company in respect of the same mark ...

Peggy never imagined that
using a hand-held reading
device could be such fun

Around the weblogs.  As may be apparent by now, this Kat loves lists, which is why he was so enchanted by this list on the ever-excellent IP Draughts of "Top 10 howlers when preparing contracts for signature". These are basic howlers that apply everywhere in contract law, not just in intellectual property, so don't expect to find refinements such as an absence of termination provisions or a commencement date -- but it's strange how often words like "draft" aren't properly removed from the draft before it's ready to sign. Elsewhere on the IP blogosphere, Leigh Harrison's Open Letter on the 1709 Blog, about the predations of copyright piracy and the option of withholding one's work, has received both bouquets and brickbats. The jiplp weblog carries a very readable little note on breach of confidence and the 'springboard' doctrine (click here if you either can't remember it or never knew it in the first place).

Bulgarian sausage:
etting into a pickle

Bulgarian sausage war sizzles.  Via the Kat's friends at Petosevic comes news that, last month, Bulgaria’s Commission for Unfair Competition ordered one of the largest Bulgarian meat-processing companies -- Mekom JSC -- to pay a fine of approximately Euro 168,000 (US$236,000) for making and selling a flat sausage called KARLOSKA Krepost.  You may think "Karloska is a pretty name for a girl", but to a Bulgarian it's a sausage that is uncannily and unlawfully similar to KARLOVSKA Lukanka -- a protected designation of origin for the traditional Bulgarian flat sausage (lukanka) which originates in the the central Bulgarian town of Karlovo. According to the Commission, the similarity in appearance between the two products, their brand names and the font used on the packaging was potentially misleading to consumers: KARLOVSKA and KARLOSKA, both written in capital letters, can be viewed as identical since the absence of a single letter can be understood as a mistake or simply go unnoticed. The word “krepost” (meaning "fortress"), which is intended to distinguish Mekom JSC’s product, is written in almost invisibly small and scarcely legible letters against a dark background that hides the word. Mekom claimed its product was named after a historical personality and an event, the conquest of an old Silistrian fortress by the 15th-century knight called Karlos-- but the Commission was unimpressed.