Wednesday whimsies

Read me, please,
please ...

The Department of Arbitrary But Comforting Statistics reports that, in the November immediately past, the number of visits to the IPKat weblog totalled 143,603. This is not only the first time our monthly tally has exceeded the 140,000 mark -- it's actually the first time we've even crept above the figure of 120,000 (or around 4,000 a day) which has been a distant dream of the blog team since we touched the 119,000 mark in March of this year. As a sidenote, the Kats report that, with the year not yet over (and admittedly with the end-of-year holiday break to come, which always slows things down), visits for 2012 are 48.28% higher this year than in 2011.  As usual, the IPKat and Merpel thank all their readers for continuing to support and encourage them, and promise to work their hardest to keep this weblog bright, lively and informative, a reliable source of news and views on all things IP.

Secondary protection of innovation -- the seminar.  The inaugural seminar to mark the collaboration between intellectual property journals Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice and GRUR Int this coming January (Tuesday 22 January, to be precise), now has 50 registrants.  The seminar has also gained a further panelist: Timo Minssen, an Ass. Professor at the University of Copenhagen who has guested at the Max Planck Institute in Munich and who has been cultivating a special interest in secondary protection issues. Do join us on the day: it's fun, it's free and it carries CPD points. Everyone is welcome: click here for details.

The Fahrzeugwechselstrom-
generator: says Merpel, it's
a device for turning letters
into numbers ...

Around the weblogs. The IPKat's old friend Richard Ebbink (Brinkhof, The Netherlands) has been giving PatLit readers the benefit of his thoughts on Actavis v Lilly, the latest case from England and Wales on whether cross-border jurisdiction and service outside the jurisdiction are the best thing since sliced bread or a mortal sin. The same blog carries a fascinating note on "Fahrzeugwechselstromgenerator" [Merpel just loves those 29-letter words, even though she has sometimes forgotten the beginning of them by the time she gets to the end ...] and the results of the latest attempt by Germany to modify its patent nullity procedure, penned by Michael Thesen.  Ron Coleman's Likelihood of Confusion writes on Cats and Dogs Living Together, but the underlying theme of his short piece has nothing to do with domestic pets: it's actually a comment on brand dilution.  The jiplp weblog carries Thorsten Lauterbach's explanation of the Court of Justice of the European Union's ruling in Case C-5/11 Titus Donner, on the conflict between EU's level playing field principles and German criminal copyright rules. Finally, Eleonora Rosati, on the 1709 Blog, introduces readers to a new acronym: FLET [Unimpressed, Merpel thinks it should actually be FLEET].

Valley-added protection.  The IPKat thanks his friend Michael Lin (who in turn acknowledges Mark Allen Cohen's China IPR Blog) for news that China has just issued its first Geographical Indication for a non-Chinese wine region. Napa Valley was registered by Napa Valley Vintners, a non-profit trade association, and you can sample their press release here.

Launched from Iran, but it's not a missile. Iran has recently received a good deal of bad publicity on the media and, to be honest, there hasn't been much good news to report from there of late.  The IPKat was therefore pleased to read from Raysan Patent & Trademark Agents that the Iranian Trade Marks Registry launched its electronic trade mark application system on 18 November, which means that trade mark applications can now be submitted online. The electronic platform for filing of trade mark applications and workflow system is available at http://iripo.ssaa.ir. According to information received, the platform is only designed in Persian and the English version is not yet available.