Friday fantasies

Don't forget to check out the IPKat's Forthcoming Events Page. There's a constant parade of new events, specially selected for your delectation, or at any rate for someone's ...

Is someone playing cat-
and-mouse with our poll?

Apologies for the poll.  The IPKat's sidebar poll on the choice of a common logo for legitimate online traders in pharmaceutical products has gone decidedly pear-shaped. After one day the score stood at 45 for Option A, with 33 for Option B.  Since then, either there have been repeated software failures or some hacker has been playing  fast and loose with the theoretically secure Blogger software which powers the poll. Either way, it keeps re-setting itself and is thus guaranteed not to reflect the opinions of IPKat readers as to which they prefer.  If any reader has experience of this phenomenon and knows how to prevent it, an email to the IPKat here would be greatly appreciated.

 The annual IP Publishers and Editors Lunch (see earlier Katpost here for details) now has over 60 registrants -- a new record. It also has a keynote speaker, Michael Harrison (Harrison IP). Michael has just taken over from Tibor Gold MBE  as editor of the prestigious and increasingly useful CIPA Journal.  Since Michael is unencumbered by the oppressive weight of practical experience in the field, we are expecting him to give a fresh perspective on a subject which, while we love it dearly, we will never be able to view in a fresh and objective manner.

Egyptian Goddess. The discussion panel for Perry Saidman's London presentation on US design patent law, "Life After Egyptian Goddess", is now taking shape.  We have two conscripts and one volunteer, but the Kat is far too discreet to say who is the volunteer.  The three in question are Lorna Brazell (Bird & Bird), Barbara Cookson (Filemot Technology Law Ltd) and Richard Gallafent (Gallafents).  Details of this soon-to-be-held seminar, co-badged between the Class 99 and CIPA, can be accessed here.

From the excellent (as ever) Intellectual Property Watch the IPKat learns that "a new petition circulating worldwide urges the delay of a suddenly fast-moving proposal to create a Pan-African Intellectual Property Organization (PAIPO). The delay effort – which seeks an open discussion of the proposal to make it more tailored to local African needs - comes just weeks before African Union representatives meet to consider its adoption".  While he has a deep affection for all things from Africa (the home of the biggest Kats), and supports the Afro-IP weblog, this Kat does not have his finger on the pulse of that complex creature, African IP politics.  Caroline NCube has written on PAIPO here, providing an insight into some of plainly relevant issues -- but what do all of the IPKat's African readers feel about the speed at which PAIPO has taken off and the corresponding speed with which its critics have sought to stop it in its present manifestation? Do let us know!

The EPO shows its social
side. When fee income falls,
it can show its economic
side too ...

Social and economic.  The European Patent Office has been concerning itself with the economic and social impact of patents, following the creation last year of its Economic and Scientific Advisory Board (ESAB). ESAB seeks to provide accurate analysis and to support the EPO with quantities of that much-desired substance, the Fools' Gold of intellectual property (some might say): data upon which evidence-based policy-making may be founded.  Currently ESAB has the product of three high level workshops on offer:

* Patent fees and pricing (here);
* Patent quality (here);
* Patent thickets (here).

Nikolaus Albert Thumm (Chief Economist, European Patent Office) would love to receive some feedback. Of the IPKat's blog team, Nicola the Katonomist is best qualified to offer an opinion -- but there are thousands of readers out there who are willing to offer an opinion regardless of the niceties of qualification.  If you are one of such people, feel free to contact Nikolaus by email here.

Around the weblogs.  PatLit announces the publication on SSRN of two important pieces of patent litigation research, taking account of British patent litigation between 2000 and 2008 -- one of which looks specifically at the phenomenon of the patent troll [the authors use the term 'Patent Assertion Entity', notes Merpel, who vastly prefers it to the silly 'Non Practicing Entity'].  The Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) is now on Twitter, reports the jiplp weblog: you can follow it here. There's also an instructive post from IP Draughts, "Clients Who Are Too Grand to Read Legal Documents", here.