Friday fantasies

Hamish the Town Cat has his
own Facebook page

Do you fancy working with a school that deliberately doesn't have an apostrophe in its name? If so, this may be for you. The Institute for Capitalising on Creativity, in the School of Management at the University of St Andrews [correct spelling], is recruiting a Knowledge Transfer Partnership Associate. The project is with Creative Scotland and identifies successful strategies for the management, commercialization and exploitation of intellectual property in the creative industries in Scotland. It's a great opportunity to work with the creative industries and research their IP strategies under the supervision of Hamish the St Andrews Town Cat, (above, right) with possible input from our favourite Katonomist Nicola Searle too. The position is based in Edinburgh and candidates are invited to apply if their backgrounds are in economics, management or law. The deadline for applications is 15 February and you can get more information from the IP Finance weblog here.

If Scotland is too cold, or too independent, for your liking, you may find Nottingham more to your taste. If so, you will be thrilled to discover that Katfriend Estelle Derclaye has the funding to support two PhDs in copyright law.  Full details of these two exciting prospects can be found on the 1709 Blog here.  Nottingham is famous for being the zone of activity of Robin Hood, one of the best-loved villains in folk history, whose celebrity was founded in the principle of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.  Merpel innocently asks where we might see the same principle put into action today, within the IP context?

How far does the copyright in a photo or digital image extend? The 1709 Blog is hosting a seminar on exactly this question, following the controversial ruling by Judge Birss QC in the "Red Bus" case (see links to blogposts here, here and here, plus readers' multifarious comments).  Details of the seminar, which takes place on Tuesday 21 February, can be found on the 1709 Blog here.  If you want to attend, you'd better not delay too long: the event was only launched yesterday but already has over 30 registrants signed up.

Meanwhile, the University of Sheffield is hosting a forum, “Governance and Intellectual Property of Biotechnology: Developed and Developing Countries Perspectives” on 2 March 2012.  This, says Carlos Conde, is the first 2012 regional meeting founded by the Postgraduate Forum on Genetics and Society (PFGS) and organised by University of Sheffield postgrads.  Calls for papers and all sorts of other details can be obtained from the PFGS website here.

Tallinn Airport: sadly, this lovely
design was rejected for the main
terminal, though the city planners
found another use for it  ...

Around the weblogs.  SOLO IP has been active this week. First it drew the attention of readers to the ongoing patent and trade mark professionals' salary survey, which now has data from well over 200 respondents and is looking quite useful.  Then, in "The Terrors of Taxonomy", the excellent Filemot reports on  the OHIM British Day, hosted by the Intellectual Property Office. PatLit alerts us to the latest UK call for evidence, this time relating to the proposed small claims track which, it is hoped, will be a reality by this October. Finally, readers of the jiplp weblog are treated to the reassurance that in Estonia, a country from which little IP information emanates, the courts have affirmed that the country's main airport cannot exercise a monopoly claim to use of the word "airport".

[Note: since this item was posted, the publishers appear to have taken all their product information offline. All attempts to reach their titles are directed to a product navigation page that, as of 29 January, does not work for any of their titles] It's big, it's black and it's back! The 7th edition of that great classic, The C.I.P.A. Guide to the Patents Acts, is now published.  You can get all the details from the publisher's website here.  The book is only £250, which isn't very much when you consider that it's compiled by a team of no fewer than 34 authors, each of whom is more expert than the rest.  A review of this mighty tome will follow, once the IPKat has had his letterbox surgically stretched.  Meanwhile, readers of this weblog have the chance to spot -- before publishers Sweet & Maxwell correct it -- a whopper of a mistake in the book's description. Just look here!