Wednesday whimsies

Not for nothing is Ireland known as the Emerald Isle. The small but fertile nation in the top left hand corner of the European Union has ratified the 1991 Act of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. This will take effect in Ireland on 8 January 2012, according to a recent notification. Just think of all that legally protected chlorophyll ...

Still with Ireland, but nothing to do with the colour green -- since green bread is usually a sign that someone's growing old, or is it mould? -- theIPKat has heard from the ever-helpful Gemma O'Farrell that the litigation between McCambridge and Brennans over (see earlier posts here and here) is not yet over. The Supreme Court has ordered a stay of the injunctive relief to which McCambridge is entitled, on condition that Brennans pushes ahead with a speedy appeal. You can read all about it in the Irish Times here.

The Germans are taking steps
to modernise Stuttgart station

Around the blogs.  Sad news for lovers of copyright's right of integrity and grandly-designed railway stations is that Paul Bonatz's appeal against the decision to rearrange Stuttgart station has at last hit the buffers: you can read about it on the jiplp weblog, thanks to Thorsten Lauterbach, here.  Still on copyright, Eleonora Rosati has graced today's 1709 Blog with the latest news of the pirates-and-safe-harbours battle between UMG and Veoh [Says Merpel, "umg" and "veoh" sound like the sort of grunts you hear coming from contestants in a wrestling bout]. On the same blog there's a little gentle reflection about copyright in scanned versions of public domain documents, following an email from fellow blogger Arnoud Engelfriet, followed by some good observations on the same topic by Francis Davey. David Musker (Class 99) brings news of a literally potty design decision from the Dutch.

"Fakes in Transit: current law, future prospects", the JIPLP seminar which is to take place on 18 January in London (details here) now has 74 participants signed up.  The event can confirm that there will definitely be CPD points available, for solicitors at any rate. If you are thinking of attending, please sign up soon, since the event is not far from reaching capacity.

Before Google came
along, quiz cheats
had to use lots
of reference books

So you think you know about IP? If so, you might want to spend a few quiet hours pondering over the Managing Intellectual Property IP Quiz of the Year. According to the IPKat's longstanding friend and fellow beard-wearer James Nurton, this quiz can be freely accessed [Merpel notes: there's not much that the publishers of MIP give away without a charge, so make the most of it!] -- and there’s a prize too, so feel free to share the link. Adds James:

"We’ve tried to make the questions tough but not impossible, so hopefully it will give IP professionals something to think about over the holidays when if they are missing work".