Wednesday whimsies

It's the Dining Season again, and what better way can there be to garnish the delicacies than to attend the presentation on "Trade Secrets and Confidence --- the current state of the law", offered by TIPLO this coming Tuesday, 16 October 2012, in The Hall, Gray's Inn, London, WC1R 5ET. Here you will be treated to the special thoughts of the IPKat's friends Professor Tanya Aplin (King's College, London) and  and Ken Moon (AJ Park, Auckland). What will they be saying? The IPKat would tell you, but it's a secret.  Full details of the dinner and how to get it programme can be accessed on the TIPLO website here.

Around the weblogs. "My name is Aegidius and I am the IP Alchemist" is the striking opening to Darren Smyth's new blog. Here you will find some fascinating thoughts on IP and even a little beyond, from our much-loved guest Kat Emeritus and real-life UK and European Patent Attorney with EIP. "Good luck Darren", chorus the IPKat and Merpel. You can follow Darren on IP Alchemist here. If alchemy is your scene, you may also believe in fairies, Father Christmas and that even more dubious concept -- the clean simplicity of Europe's design protection laws.  JIPLP editorial board member Paul Joseph (RPC) takes a look at the concept of 'cool' in recent British design infringement litigation. You can read Paul's carefully chosen words on the jiplp weblog here. Cool or hot? When it comes to US copyright litigation over the resale of loaded second-hand MP3s (cool if you're a music lover, hot if you're not) Iona Harding's 1709 Blog post on EMI v ReDigi here sets the scene for litigation which may well be replicated in a number of jurisdictions.

Secret technology: the British 'Stealth'
catapult, guaranteed to deliver a nuclear
warhead several hundred metres.
Environmentally friendly, it complies
with all fuel emission and sound
abatement regulations

A little over a year ago, IPKat team member David Brophy posted this article on foreign filing licences. Recalling this, another David -- Katfriend David Harris (Barker Brettell) -- tells us that submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO), seeking disclosure of the list which the Comptroller receives from the Secretary of State for Defence which details the technologies for which patent applications should be made the subject of a secrecy order under Section 22 of the UK's Patents Act 1977.  David eventually got a response from the IPO (after a bit of prodding from the Information Commissioner) which provided him with a redacted [note for those who may not have read George Orwell's 1984: 'redact' is Newspeak for both 'edit' and 'censor'] list. The IPO has now published a little note on its website to the following effect:

"Military technology and material prejudicial to national security or public safety This list (79Kb) is a guide to what is considered as military technology or prejudicial to national security or public safety. Please note that the list has been redacted for reasons of national security under s24(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and that this redaction has been upheld by a decision of the Information Commissioner .

Applications relating to material included in this list may be placed under directions restricting the disclosure of their contents according to s22 of the Patents Act 1977.

Permission to file an application for these technologies abroad according to s.23 of the Patents Act 1977 must be obtained from The Intellectual Property Office, unless an equivalent application in the UK has been filed more than six weeks previously and no s.22 directions have been issued on it. The list is a guideline only and is not intended to be definitive; if you are uncertain if your application would fall within these categories or requires permission to apply for a patent abroad, please contact Security Section at the Intellectual Property Office ..."

The IPKat thanks his friends from Petosevic for the news that, according to the Copyright Agency of the Azerbaijan Republic, in the period 2003-2012, the Agency uncovered 30 plagiarised publications, including six scientific works, five literary works, two dictionaries, and one encyclopedia. The remaining plagiarised works were secondary school and university textbooks and school supplies: "The most interesting detail in these statistics is that approximately 95 percent of the uncovered plagiarized textbooks are university material". The IPKat is impressed to see how great is the local commitment to education ...