Friday fantasies

Have you checked out the IPKat's list of forthcoming attractions? There are events a-plenty to attend, offering superb opportunities to learn something, impart a bit of your wisdom, have a good sleep during the quiet bits, do some congenial networking and lighten your employer's wallet in the process.  The Forthcoming Events page is here.



It's those Frandards again. Why aren't FRAND standards called Frandards, wonders Merpel. Never mind that, says the IPKat, here's a bit of news about them: 'Standards, FRAND, NPEs and Injunctions: A joint IBIL/Taylor Wessing conference' takes place on Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 November 2012. Here you will find commentary from key industry and legal experts from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the US on

• Injunctions and jurisdictions • Standards, FRAND and its use in Europe • Patent portfolios • Unified Patents Court • Dispute resolution on licensing terms • Competition considerations

Through a combination of panel discussions, presentations and keynote addresses, the aim of this flagship event is to inform and update on the very latest developments with the benefit of the views and insights of leading authorities including from the industry, the judiciary and private practice in this complex and very topical field. Sign up online here.

An inability to spell "cats" properly was only
one of the union members' problems ...

Part of the Union?  One of our correspondents, signing himself Kharol, has commented that, what with the IPKat's Monday miscellany, Tuesday tiddlywinks, Wednesday whimsies, Thursday thingies and Friday fantasies features, he wonders when readers might see "Saturday Sadness" or "Sunday Somethings". Good question. "But maybe the Kat is just in a trade union and is not working on weekends ...", he adds. Let this Kat put Kharol out of his misery: the IPKat is not a trade union but a group of IP enthusiasts among whom there are several who virtually have to be restrained from writing blogposts 24/7, which they'd do if they had the chance. The team members pretty all work on Saturdays and/or Sundays, where some of them can often be found in their offices, or composing at home. There's actually quite a good reason for not posting a great deal on Saturdays and Sundays, though: the volume of readers online is much lower at the weekend -- usually around 50% down on Mondays to Fridays -- and emails conveying material that is posted on the blog to the IPKat's 7,647 email subscribers (at the time of posting this item) are sometimes buried under a cascade of Monday morning emails and circulars by the time readers get to work and power up their desk devices.  So now you know!

United we dine ...  Union-ip will holding its next dinner meeting on 29 October 2012 when Sean Dennehey (UK Intellectual Property Office) will be talking about current developments on the EU patent [on which, see recent Katposts here and here]. This is followed on 30 October by a Union Roundtable looking at non-patent IP protection for pharmaceuticals in Europe. Both of these events are being held at the Royal Overseas League in London. If you are interested in details of either please contact Dinners [Merpel greatly approves of this. None of that silly stuff about emailing 'Info', 'General' or 'Policy' which some other organisations favour: Union sayd Dinners because it means Dinners ...] at dinners@union-gb.com.


This year's IP Publishers and Editors lunch, kindly hosted on 21 November at the lovely London office of Simmons & Simmons LLP, will be the biggest and best ever, with over 50 people already registered.  If you are an IP publisher, editor or media-type person, or work with such folk, and think you should be there, let the Kats know.  Further details are available here.