Friday Fantasies

We all know what the
target it -- but we still need
to find the best way to hit it!

Three cheers for MARQUES!  While INTA is the flavour of the moment (see earlier post here), this Kat is thrilled to see that MARQUES has decided to seize the initiative and direct its efforts to stamping out those pestilent people who plague trade mark and patent owners with official-looking renewal notices and directory entry requests that are just a disguised way of ripping off the recipients.  MARQUES has declared its interest in exploring all avenues in dealing with these rogues, whose activities are often not actually illegal or not clearly so, through international law, national enforcement and in cooperation with her sister organisations.  You can read about the MARQUES initiative on the Class 46 weblog here.  If you can contribute anything towards this effort -- good ideas and suggestions, your experiences of any successful operations against the scammers or even just a few words of encouragement -- please email MARQUES here with the subject line "Fight Against Scams" and let them know.

Brunei Darussalam is rarely mentioned on this weblog.  In fact, the only two occasions on which the IPKat has had the pleasure of reporting on events in this paradise of affluence is when, in recent years, the Sultanate has signed up for the Berne Convention on the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Paris Convention on the Protection of Industrial Property.  It is therefore with pleasure, but with no sense of surprise, that we bring you the news that Brunei has now signed up for the Patent Cooperation Treaty.  According to the WIPO media release, the PCT takes effect for Brunei from 24 July 2012.

WIPO and the EPO have also unveiled
the new

PO's the word. "EPO and WIPO Sign Agreement to Enhance Co-operation" is the excited title of a media release simultaneously issued yesterday in Geneva and Munich by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). Apart from the fact that both offices end in "-PO", they have much in common. Despite this handicap, or possibly because of it, they have come together for an orgy of mutual assistance:

"With the aim of further developing the international patent system to better support innovation in economies around the globe, the EPO and WIPO have agreed on a comprehensive three-year technical co-operation scheme. The agreement ... is the first of its kind between the two institutions, and specifically aims at improving the procedural framework of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) with a view to increasing its use by patent applicants. Moreover, co-operation also focuses on enhancing the quality and efficiency of the patent granting process, including patent classification and searching, and improving access to patent information [Sounds good, but (i) it all sounds very vague-- does anyone know what the specifics are? (ii) why is it taking three years, neither more time nor less; (iii) if this is the only way to achieve these ends, why hasn't it been done before?] ...".

New titles.  Two more in the Wolters Kluwer Law & Business series of free-standing national intellectual property titles, drawn from the International Encyclopaedia of Laws,have now been published.  They are Intellectual Property Law in Lebanon by Mohammed El Said (here) and Intellectual Property Law in Romania by a three-strong team consisting of Alexandru Christian Strenc, Gheorghe Gheorghiu and Gheorghe Bucsa (here).  Originating from the same encyclopaedia but quite differently oriented is Peggy Valcke and Katrien Lefever's Media Law in the European Union (puzzlingly, oblt the first-named is credited as the author on the book's webpage, here).  If anyone had told this Kat that a book on IP law in Romania was going to be two and a half times longer than a book on IP in Romania, he would not have believed you in the absence of evidence to the contrary -- but it's true.  Considering how important and influential the media are in the EU, it seems strange that they have received so much less harmonising legislation and general regulation than IP laws. But back to these books: they are easy to use, clearly written and provide more than just a bit of easy access to what might be an unfamiliar jurisdiction for the reader -- and they take up much less room on the shelf than an encyclopaedia will.

Around the weblogs.  The SPC Blog has been busy over the past two days.  First there was a post on the Advocate General's Opinion in the 'sexy sheep' case, C-130/11 Neurim, on which readers have been posting some interesting opinions of their own. Then, earlier today, there was a short summary of what many people fervently hope will be the final chapter in the saga of Medeva's cunning but ultimately unsuccessful ploy to obtain some highly valuable patent term protection.  Ben Challis (the 1709 Blog) explains why at least one US judge has reached the opinion that an IP address is not actually a person. If you've ever wondered what an IP Strategist is, or whether you might even be one without knowing it, this piece on IP Draughts might just interest you.