Friday fantasies

The best way to preserve
old blogposts? Turn
them into paper!

Old blog posts: still of value.  The current (May/June) Internet Newsletter for Lawyers carries a neat piece by co-editor Nick Holmes entitled "Keeping up with IP law", which lists some twenty IP-flavoured intellectual property law blogs. After gazing intently for slightly too long at the bit which featured the word "IPKat", this Kat took a peep at some of the other sites listed. These include Abbe Brown's IPEdinburgh which, though silent since December 2010, contains a good deal of fascinating archived material reaching back to May 2005. Also silent, though only since December 2011, is law firm Bonallack & Bishop's Intellectual Property Lawyer blog.  Over the years a number of other IP blogs have ceased production, of which two of the most notable and high-profile examples are those of Lawrence Lessig (hibernating since August 2009) and Bill Patry (occasional lapses into consciousness since August 2010 but no stirrings since March 2010; contains fine memorials of Barbara Ringer and Sir Hugh Laddie). All of this has set the Kat wondering: can any reader tell him what archival measures, if any, have been made for preserving old legal blogposts (i) in the UK and in other jurisdictions and (ii) by public sector and privately funded initiatives?

IP education for non-lawyers in Ireland: can you help? "Hello Kats!", exclaims our friend Laura Prado. She continues [after the usual paean of praise, deleted on account of the Kats' inherent modesty], "Since I have no formal law training (I graduated in journalism and have half of a graduate diploma in IP - but this is a long story), I'm looking for recommendations of places where a non-law degree holder could go to continue her studies in intellectual property, in Ireland.   Perhaps taking a full law degree would be more useful, regardless or my specific interest? My searches online didn't return good results, so I'm going to the best source I know. I don't intend to become a lawyer, but I'm looking to grow as a consultant for companies with IP-related issues. Any help will be very appreciated".  Are there any courses? Or, if not, is there enough demand to make it worth running one? Comments, please!

... to this?

From this ...

IPO on the move. We all know that public sector bodies in Europe are a bit short of money these days. Can it be for this reason that the UK's illustrious Intellectual Property Office is moving its London premises? As of 21 May 2012 [that's next Monday, for the uninitiated], the IPO is packing its bags and moving to first floor premises at 4 Abbey Orchard Street, London SW1P 2HT. for those readers who still use telephones as their preferred means of making contact with civil servants, news is that there will be no change to the telephone numbers for the office, so you can still listen to the IPO's much-loved alphanumerical voicemail recording: "press 'P' for patents, 'T' for trade marks, 'D' for designs, 'W' for Wallace and Gromit ..."

Like confectionery, legislative
amendments are often more
palatable when they're
all mixed up together

Legislative assortment. The Crime and Courts Bill was laid before the United Kingdom Parliament earlier this week. It's a mixed bag of provisions, which include the repeal of bits of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 so that the Patents County Court can be reconstituted as a free-standing court within the Chancery Division. The changes will not affect the service provided by the court at present, which means that its procedures, special cost rules and limits, financial limits and (not-yet-operative) small claims track will remain unscathed. Don't read this if you're coming up for retirement, since the changes won't take effect till 2013/14 [katpat to Graham Titley for the link].

Little-known fact:
Scotland developed
the world's first bellows-
powered portable
computer ...

Jobs for the lads -- and lasses.  There's a IP lectureship which is being advertised for the School of Law in Edinburgh, somewhere near the frozen wastes of Northern Britain.  If you fancy taking a shot at it, or even if you're just curious to know all about the terms and conditions under which Scottish academics operate [there are not many institutions in the world that offer lecturers a quart of whisky and half a ton of coal a month on top of their ordinary pay and increments, says Merpel], just click here.  And if you'd like to try Edinburgh out for a couple of days and see if it agrees with you, there's a jolly SCRIPT conference coming up between 6 and 8 June.  The link is here but be warned, they sometimes turn the central heating off in June ...


They can't do worse than Hargreaves ...The IPKat's friend Professor Ruth Soetendorp has written to tell him that, as from this morning, students at UK universities and colleges have been given the opportunity to express their views as to what they think about intellectual property. She explains:

iPan and docking unit

"A survey, initiated and steered by IPAN (Intellectual Property Awareness Network), funded by the IPO, and designed and administered by the National Union of Students Services Research Department, has gone out to students in all faculties at all levels. Questions are designed to elicit students' current attitudes to IP, their experience (if any) of IP learning and teaching, and their expectation of the role IP will play in their future careers. Through careful dissemination the research is expected to benefit students and their union, higher education institutions, professional bodies and governmental policy makers. We look forward to sharing the findings in due course".