Thursday thingies

The IPKat is a magnanimous mammal who is occasionally  sometimes always happy to share the limelight with Merpel. He is therefore delighted to see that Merpel's truly excellent analysis of the US Apple v Samsung patent infringement damages award has found its way into the leading UK practitioners' organ, Legal Week. The same post has also made it to The Inquirer --  Merpel's a little miffed at not getting her own name-check on either occasion but, as the IPKat is fond of reminding her, fictional felines have no moral right to be named as the author ...

Clouding the issue.  The IPKat's webinar-friendly friend Susan Keston is at it again. The D Young & Co. IP enthusiast ran a Smartphone Wars seminar earlier this year, which received a mention on this weblog.  "Your blog proved to be the most effective vehicle we had for boosting our audience, for which I am very grateful", says Susan -- but of course the IPKat knew that. Buoyed by her instant popularity, Susan and some of her friends have now opted for a follow-up, “Cloud Computing”, which is coming up on 19 September 2012.  Registration is free and all are gloriously welcome. Just click here for registration and details [Merpel's quite excited about this. Now that she knows how to use a smartphone, she thinks she might pick up some tips about using clouds too ...].

The Best IP Judgment That Has Never Been Written -- that's the competition currently on offer at the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP). You can read all about the rules and the rewards here.  So far there have been some excellent and preponderantly British entries, though one of the strongest contenders to date hails from continental Europe.  Don't be shy, take a shot at it!  The closing date for entries is 30 September, so there are still a few weekends to go if you're a slow writer who needs a bit of extra time to get those brain-cells going.

One Report, two tongues. The Irish Patents Office has issued its Annual Report for 2011.  As one might expect, it's full of data, handsome tabulations and text, both in English and from the original Irish from which this Kat dreams it must have been translated.  The two versions combined total just 51 pages, and you can read it here.

Now that the football season has started in most if not all of Europe, can there be a better time to exhort all the IPKat's patent-y people to register (in the unlikely event that they have not yet done so) for the UK Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys' Congress on 11 to 12 October.  "IP United -- Global Harmonisation" is the name of the game and -- a bit like the Transfer Window -- the period for registering to secure the Early Bird discount will soon be over.  Tomorrow, in fact.  Details of the Congress and registration for it may be accessed here.