Wednesday whimsies

Final call for IP publishers and editors.  The Kat now has 40 people for this most enjoyable annual free lunch next Wednesday, 7 December, 12.30pm to 2.30pm, in the High Holborn office of Olswang LLP. Our guest speaker is Wilhem Warth (C.H. Beck). Can anyone else who plans to come -- or who would like to and thinks they are eligible -- please email the IPKat here by not later than this Friday, with the subject line "PubEd lunch", so he can give final figures to the caterer?

This member of the IPKat team is now back in action after a brief trip to Bucharest, Romania, where he had the privilege of participating in a one-day trade mark seminar. He just wants to record the very positive impression he gained of the IP practitioners and administrators whom he met during his trip. There was a genuine buzz of enthusiasm and a good deal of legal knowledge on display, as well as a practical, pro-commerce attitude. Of course, it's not possible to judge a country's commitment to intellectual property protection on the basis of such flimsy evidence -- but, if the bits of the Romanian IP community he hasn't seen are comparable to the bits he has, there's every reason to hope that this relatively new European Union Member State will provide a good environment for future IP investment.

At last, Brennan have
a wrapping that no-one
else is complaining about

 Monday's round-up led with news of the Irish High Court's decision that bakers Brennan had wrapped their bread in a manner that was sufficiently close to that of their competitors McCambridge. The IPKat's friend Gemma O'Farrell has now procured a copy of the court's judgment, which you can read here.  It's an unapproved judgment, she tells the Kats.  The IPKat already guessed that Brennan didn't approve of it, but Merpel reminds him that the judge hasn't approved it either -- so if you want to comb it for signs of typos, grammatical whoopsies, episodes of getting 'plaintiff' and 'defendant' the wrong way round and naughty mis-spellings of 'passing off', now's your chance.

Around the blogs.  Mark Anderson has excelled himself again on IP Draughts with this piece entitled "10 words and phrases you should never use in IP contracts".-- though Merpel suspects that readers of this blog might have one or two more which they'd like to add to Mark's list.  Meanwhile, long-suffering Kingsley Egbuonu's cyber-trek across official African websites takes him to the unpromising e-terrain of Guinea-Bissau.  The jiplp poll, to see whether readers of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) still prefer the abbreviation of "Court of Justice of the European Union" to be 'ECJ' rather than 'CJEU', is currently too close to call; on a less trivial note, there's also a great case analysis of the ECJ/CJEU ruling in Interflora from Darren Meale, which you can read here.  Ben Challis, on the 1709 Blog, points to an initiative by German concert promoters to collect licensing fees. Still on copyright, Howard Knopf's Excess Copyright blog lists a total of 12 interveners' 'factums' in copyright fair dealing actions which are currently pending before the Canadian Supreme Court.

Artwork from
clipartpal

This is not strictly speaking blog news, but it is blogger news.  Simone Blakeney (Clifford Chance and, more importantly for us, Captain of the Art & Artifice blogging team) has just been elected Education Secretary of IPSoc, the society for junior IP practitioners of which this Kat is a great supporter and admirer. Great stuff, Simone, and we all wish you the best of luck! Meanwhile, if there are any bright, enthusiastic young IP practitioners around who haven't either joined IPSoc or renewed their membership, this Kat respectfully suggests that perhaps a little more education is in order ...

Virgin Airlines is committed
to comfortable seating on all
its Jumbos ...

All the way from India comes a piece of news about the patent litigation that has taken place over Virgin Airlines' comfy seats (most recently covered by Matt the Kat earlier this year here. Via Sandeep K. Rathod (thanks, Sandeep!) the Kats have discovered the opposition proceedings which Virgin's patent has attracted in the vibrant economic environment of India. For the record, the patent's claims have been upheld, with oppositions based on lack of novelty and inventive step being rejected in this 128-page decision of the Patent Office, Chennai, following six days of hearings. Apart from Virgin's perennial foe Contour, there was also a local opponent, Jet Airways (India) Ltd of Mumbai.

At last, Brennan have
a wrapping that no-one
else is complaining about

 Monday's round-up led with news of the Irish High Court's decision that bakers Brennan had wrapped their bread in a manner that was sufficiently close to that of their competitors McCambridge. The IPKat's friend Gemma O'Farrell has now procured a copy of the court's judgment, which you can read here.  She also informs us that the terms of the injunction will be determined on Thursday. The judgment is an unapproved judgment, she tells the Kats, and on page three there's a reference to French baguettes ...  The IPKat already guessed that Brennan didn't approve of this judgment, but Merpel reminds him that the judge hasn't approved it either -- so if you want to comb it for signs of typos, grammatical whoopsies, episodes of getting 'plaintiff' and 'defendant' the wrong way round and naughty mis-spellings of 'passing off', now's your chance.