Wednesday whimsies

A Finnish Top Dog ...

For those love of statistics is only surpassed by their passion for trivia, the IPKat can recommend no better read than the Innovation Union Scoreboard 2011: the Innovation Union's performance scoreboard for Research and Innovation, which you can read in its entirety here. Published earlier this month, the Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) includes innovation indicators and trend analyses for the 27 EU Member States, as well as for some of its neighbours -- Croatia, Iceland, Macedoslavia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey [another snub for Andorra, sniffs Merpel]. The exciting bit is where the IUS ranks EU Member States as follows: (i) Innovation Top Dogs: Denmark, Finland and Germany; (ii) Nearly Good: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Slovenia and the UK; (iii) The Not-Bad-But-Could-Do-Better Crowd: Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain; (iv) Plenty to be Modest About: Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. Note for nerds: the IUS report, its annexes and database of indicators are available here.  Katpat to Chris Torrero for the link.



Where did it go? This Kat has always been enthusiastic about the extension of the Peer to Patent pilot experiment to the United Kingdom, though he still feels that its parameters are too restricted.  He was wondering, though, whatever happened to it, having not heard from the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) Peer to Patent people for a while.  Had they all been culled in the latest round of public sector cuts, he wondered, or -- in keeping with the coalition government's environmental policiees -- recycled?  Anway, the recent appointment of Veena Mapara-Popescu (real name) as IPO Press Officer gave him the chance to ask whether all was well.  Yes indeed, was Veena's cheery answer: all the patent applications in the pilot, having completed their time on the Peer To Patent website, are being examined with a view to determining the benefit gained. Veena adds: "We hope to publish a report before the Summer, subject to Ministerial approval".  Thanks!


While he is far too modest to blow his own trumpet, this Kat is very happy to give a little blast to the brass instruments of his friends.  It is thus with unfeigned delight that he tells the world all about a little blue book, The Future Prospects for Intellectual Property in the EU: 2012-2022, which has been edited by his friends Florent Gevers & Emmanuel Cornu.  Published by Bruylant (web page and all details here), this book celebrates 100 years of La Revue L’Ingenieur Conseil-ICIP, the neat little Belgian IP publication that has done to much to inform local practitioners of IP developments in their own patch and, just as importantly, to remind the rest of the world that Belgium has its own IP laws, practices, decisions [and torpedos, adds Merpel]. Anyway, having not at all blown his own trumpet, and purely in the interest of keeping his readers informed, this Kat has written a not-altogether-serious little chapter, "The Impact of the Social Media on Intellectual Property Practice" which, he guarantees his readers, is out of date, this being proof of the impact which he social media have made on IP practice.

The successful applicant is expected to play a role
in the UCD Outreach Programme ...

Beam me up, Scott.ie ... No, this is not a typo. It's just that the IPKat recently received an email from Colin Scott, Professor of EU Regulation and Governance at University College Dublin. As all domain name experts know, the country-level  identifier for Ireland, where UCD is located, is .ie -- hence "Beam me up, Scott.ie".  Merpel is unpersuaded, however. First, it's "Scotty" and not "Scottie". Secondly, like "Plat it again Sam" in Casablanca, the words "Beam me up, Scotty" were never spoken -- not in Star Trrek, at any rate.  All of this is leading to some good news for fairly senior IP academics who are either ambitious or currently unemployed: UCD  is advertising a senior lecturer/associate professor position in Intellectual Property. This is a permanent post and the lucky appointee will have a key role in developing the college's LLM programme in IP & IT Law. The pay looks really generous, till you realise it's in euros ... Details of the post and application procedures can be found here.

Special arrangements can be made
by request for anyone who requires
an unhealthy breakfast ...

If you are a member of any of about a dozen LinkedIn groups that have anything to do with trade marks, you will probably know that a combined Breakfast Meeting will be held on Wednesday 8 May, to coincide with the International Trademark Association (INTA) Annual Meeting in Washington DC.  Breakfast, sponsored by US law firm Hiaring + Smith, starts at 7.45am. The Meeting itself runs from 8-10am and, among other attractions, this Kat will be running a 30-minute interactive session on whether there is a problem of Cluttering of the Register.  If you're not already apprised of this meeting but want to be there, Alfred Strahlberg's your man. Email him at strahlberg@gmail.com -- and tell him the Kat sent you.

For some cats, "in action" is one
word, not two ...

Following BBC Radio 5's little foray into intellectual property on Sunday, the IPKat learns that BBC Radio 4's Law in Action (that's "In action", not "inaction") is running a show on "Internet privacy and copyright".  It's coming your way next Tuesday, 16:00pm. The synopsis runs like this: "Joshua Rozenberg asks how the law on privacy and copyright, with different features in different countries, should be adapted for the global internet age? Interview with legal counsel for Google, William Patry. And with growing concerns about the extent of information on users held by Google+ and Facebook, in particular, how robust are the protections in place to protect us and how will they be kept up to date?".

So much for the Transformation --
what about the Law?

The SCRIPT/ Arts and Humanities Research Council Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the University of Edinburgh, in lovely and increasingly independent-minded Scotland, will be ten years old in 2012.  To celebrate this event, SCRIPT is hosting a conference in Edinburgh on the theme of ‘Law and Transformation’ on 6, 7 and 8 June 2012. The programme, details for registration and calls for papers can be found here.  Researchers (at all stages of their career), practitioners, policymakers and industry experts are all welcome.