Monday miscellany

"I wish I knew what interested me",
sighed Matilda, as she contemplated
her IP assignment ...

A gentle plea to IP students. In recent times the IPKat has received an increasing number of very sweet emails from students who have to complete a dissertation as part of their course requirements, asking for suggestions as to what might be an interesting subject on which to do some research and/or practise their writing skills. In truth, identifying a suitable essay subject on which the student can do some good reading, clear thinking, perhaps even a little original research and then some lucid writing is itself part of the challenge.  Also, there's no point asking the IPKat which topics are interesting since, to this enthusiast, all IP subjects are interesting! So the Kat says to his student readers: "Good luck! And when it comes to finding that interesting subject on which to write -- follow your own curiosity and you won't go far wrong!"  Meanwhile, please be assured that the IPKat is prepared to help students who are genuinely stuck and need advice which they can't summon up from their own imagination and sense of adventure, as the next two posts indicate.


Danish graduate law student seeks assistance.  A charming young researcher is currently writing her thesis on the geographical scope of an infringement of a Community trade mark.  She goes on:

"In this connection, I have to interpret Article 102 of the Community Trade Mark Regulation. I also have to analyze the recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-235/09 Chronopost v DHL [noted by the IPKat here]. 

Can anyone be of assistance with an English translation of the pleadings from the French Government, the German Government, the Netherlands Government, the United Kingdom Government and the European Commission? 

I am also searching for an English translation the ruling of the French Supreme Court on the above mentioned case, but I cannot seem to find it. Can anyone be of assistance with such a translation?"

Alas, the IPKat has no resources of his own which he can offer her -- but he wonders whether any of his readers can help. Please post any useful information below or send your contact details to the IPKat and he'll pass them on.

Young British lawyer seeks advice. The Kat's correspondent is not an intellectual property lawyer as such but, working as a commercial lawyer in London, he would very much like to boost his general knowledge of IP in a commercial context. He explains:

"As I work full time and as my work isn't exclusively IP-related (although IP is a very important part of the work I do) I'd ideally like to do a course in IP either by correspondence or intensively for a week. An MA or LLM would be too much; I'm really looking to gain a better general grounding in the commercial use of IP -- ideally in relation to the use/exploitation of IP in the technology and media sectors.

Would you be able to recommend a course which might be suited to my needs? Alternatively, would you be able to recommend an institution for me to contact to see what they offer?"

No obvious course springs to this Kat's mind, but that doesn't mean that such a course doesn't exist. Can any readers help? And if there isn't such a course, might anyone like to organise one?

It has been a tumultuous year for Presidents.  This year we have already seen the departure of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. The IPKat now report on the departure of another president, this time in more auspicious circumstances: Bart Kiewiet, once President of the Community Plant Variety Office, has now joined Vondst Advocaten where he will occupy that grammatically uncomfortable status of being an Of Counsel ["an Of"? Whatever is the world coming to?]. Bart Kiewiet is a leading specialist in plant variety rights  -- a sage who really knows his onions. Bart will provides strategic and substantive advice in all specialist areas of Vondst's practice, in the fullness of thyme.

Around the blogs.  Kingsley Egbuonu's marathon tour of official IP websites in Africa on behalf of the Afro-IP weblog takes him to country number 22, Ghana.  The jiplp weblog features a helpful analysis of the America Invents Act by leading scholar and JILP editorial board member Toshiko Takenaka.  The SPC Blog, which focuses on supplementary protection certificates and patent term extensions, has not one but two further updates on the Valsartan-related litigation that has spread across Europe: one is from Italy, the other from Germany. Finally, the IPKat welcomes a new blog on the block: The Yellow Sheet. This is the work of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys' CIPA Informals Committee and will eventually supersede The Yellow Sheet, the pdf format newsletter of the same group.

The AIPPI UK Group is holding a rapid response event, "The Supreme Court's judgment in HGS v Eli Lilly" next week, on Tuesday 22 November 2011 in fact, at 5.30pm for 6pm in the London office of Allen & Overy. Speakers are Ursula Kinkeldey (former chair, EPO Technical Board 3.3.04; member of Enlarged Board of Appeal), Nina White (European Patent Attorney, Boult Wade Tennant) and Robert Burrows (Partner, Bristows), with Claire Baldock (Chair, AIPPI Special Committee for Biotechnology and Plant Sciences; European Patent Attorney, Boult Wade Tennant). Registration and full booking details are available here.

A post on the Fashion+IP LinkedIn site by Lee Curtis (Harrison Goddard Foote) had this Kat puzzled last week. It appeared to comment on the launch by Madonna of a new brand, "Truth or Dave". Wondering who this Dave happened to be, the Kat read on, to discover that his weary eyes had misread what was in fact "Truth or Dare".  This brand is apparently targeted at an older demographic than Material Girl. Truth or Dare, it seems, is a game the rules of which are explained on Wikipedia. The IPKat assumed this game to be a slimmed-down version of a game which was certainly extant in the 1960s, "Truth, Dare, Kiss or Promise" -- which is now the title of a series of books for teenagers. Meanwhile, "Truth or Dave" remains free to register ...