The IPO's Current Vacancies front page attracted the IPKat's attention for another reason. Right on-screen, in full view of the reader, is a photograph (right) of what appear to be one and a half apples. This puzzled him very greatly. IPO vacancies tend to be in Newport (where the office is located) or in London, neither of which is known as a centre for the cultivation of apples other than toffee apples. As cities go, London is big -- but it's not the Big Apple. Then, on a further reading of the particulars of the two vacancies, the truth dawned on him. The illustration was an allusion to the job specification, which offers (inter alia):
That's it! The illustration represents the apple, but not the core -- a point which should surely be appreciated by all 'appl-icants' ...
Merpel says, this is no joking matter. Who paid for this apple photo? Why is it on the site at all? Whatever happened to public spending cuts and austerity measures? If an illustration was needed, wouldn't just half an apple have sufficed? And is the IPO the owner of the copyright, or a licensee -- or is this apple an orphan? Let's have another inquiry!
well, it made me immediately think of the amount of remuneration, even though this I guess might be better illustrated with an apple and an egg for German readers or a couple of peanuts for the Brits..
ReplyDelete"The Information Centre receives up to 10,000 calls each month from customers requiring advice on all areas of Intellectual Property"
ReplyDeleteIn difficult economic times govts must tighten their belts and my firm would happily sponsor a telephone answer machine with a recorded message and/or call forwarding.
The message shall read "For professional and impartial advice on IP matters we recommend that you contact a local patent or trademark attorney. Your call will now be forwarded to one of our preferred partner organisations."
These must be Newtonian apples, to visualise the gravity of the job.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, there are clearly serious IP issues involved in displaying a representation of an apple on a computer monitor...
ReplyDeleteDoes an apple for a job infringe the rights in Job's Apple?
ReplyDeleteWe can't even get ourselves out of this recession because bright futures belong to Orange. What a pear.
It looks like just another cox up to me.
ReplyDeleteYou mean to say it's not an Apfelkind Café advert?
ReplyDeleteOther more suitable fruit:
ReplyDeletecurrant (... vacancy)
plum (... job)
date (... for interview)
It's a Royalty Free microstock image from Dreamstime image 3531599 available for about $2 or less.
ReplyDeletePhotographer is well known shooter Ron Chapple using the pseudonym lofoto images
various versions are available, here's the exact one I think on Cutcaster, image 100104217
ReplyDeleteJustin, thank you for raisin those points, but I feel we should avoid being medlars in the IPO's refruitment practices, even if they are sloe to respond to IPKat's questions.
ReplyDelete