Thursday thingies

We had so many junk comments that we needed
a white van to take them all away ...

Over the past nine and a half years, the IPKat's weblog has featured more than 7,200 posts and has attracted over 14,400 comments from readers.  Sadly, the blog also received over 7,000 junk comments, mainly advertisements for products not normally associated with respectable IP blogs and phoney messages seeking to promote the websites of search engine optimisation (SEO) clients. Most of this unwanted material was posted in late 2005, before the IPKat's team of bloggers (i) knew how to moderate and delete third party comments and (ii) realised that comments beginning with laudatory openings such as "Hi, I just love your blog ..." were probably not genuine when the identity of the commentator ran along the lines of "Florida Retirement Homes", "AdultServices" or "I Can't Believe It's Not Rolex".  Anyway, this Kat has spent most of his leisure time over the past few days in trying to hunt down and delete these unwanted excrescences of the blogosphere, which should make this weblog a more pleasant reading environment for its visitors.  He is sure that he has missed quite a few fake and unwanted posts -- but will do his best to hunt them down and delete them.

All Hans on deck?  Not quite, but these are exciting days for the publishers of two intellectual property journals: the respected German title GRUR Int, published by C. H. Beck, and Oxford University Press's Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) [declaration of interest: IPKat bloggers Jeremy, Neil and Birgit are all part of JIPLP's editorial team].  Not only have the two journals entered into an arrangement to provide selected items for publication in each other's titles, but they are marking this cooperation with two free seminars in the new year, one in London and the other in Munich.  The first of these seminars, "Secondary Protection for Innovations", has just been launched. It will be held in the lovely London office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer on 22 January 2013.  Full details of the programme and registration can be found here.

Tout Suite, to Tweet. While on the subject of JIPLP, the IPKat records that journal has entered the Twittersphere.  If you want to follow that journal's tweets (which are guaranteed to be sparingly deployed and to confine themselves to issues relating to articles, case notes, book reviews and so on), just head for https://twitter.com/JIPLP.   @JIPLP was only launched yesterday and already has 30 followers, which is an encouraging sign given the inherent conservatism and suspicion of social media which is reflected in the management structure of many large IP-owning companies and their legal representatives. While on the subject, here's a point to ponder: would the overwhelming popularity of the Twitter service and the ubiquity of its logos provide an insuperable barrier to an IP icon of a previous era, Tweetie Pie (pictured above, right), entering the social media arena as the name or logo of a social networking facility?

That's the spirit!  CIPIT, the Center for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law at Strathmore University, Kenya, announces its new website, which you can access at  www.cipit.org.  Its Director, Katfriend and Afro-IP supporter Isaac Rutenberg, excitedly tells us that the new site's notable features full-length videos and downloadable slides from CIPIT's August seminar on Computer Software Patenting, plus a searchable database of Kenyan IP case law [Merpel says, it's good to see the academic sector stepping in to provide things that the state and private practice can benefit from, but which they haven't developed for themselves]. The site is Twitter and Facebook-friendly and, as one might expect, even has its own blog.  The IPKat wonders how many other African campuses share their name with a Scotch whisky distiller. Can readers advise?

Around the weblogs. Andrew Hutchinson and Marjan Noor (Simmons & Simmons) give their opinion of the latest patent term extension dispute to be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling here on The SPC Blog (you can compare their thoughts with those of Kat blogger David here).  Over on the IP Finance blog, IPKat team member Neil puts together some penetrating thoughts on the financing of patent litigation, especially for smaller businesses. A FrenchKat, Asim Singh, writes on a recent French TV programme format dispute on the 1709 Blog, Finally, Barbara Cookson seeks your views on marketing of professional IP services here on the SOLO IP Blog.

Never underestimate the power of the social media.  On Tuesday, blogger, tweeter and serious lawyer Shireen Smith's book Legally Branded was given a bit of friendly publicity by her friends on the social media. The IPKat is delighted to learn that this helped the book reach a well-deserved 4th place in Amazon's list of top-selling law books. Jolly good job, says this Kat!

Jaszi Knockoff: all welcome. The IPKat has received ever such a sweet email from Jimmy H. Koo, writing on behalf of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at the American University Washington College of Law. He informs the Kat that, on 1 November, the First Annual Peter Jaszi Distinguished Lecture on Intellectual Property. This event, Jimmy explains, is named in recognition of the extraordinary ongoing contributions of Professor Peter Jaszi (right) to the study of intellectual property both at that college and in the world at large. Speakers are Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman; the event is titled “The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation”. For further information, and indeed for on-site and online registration, click here.