Wednesday whimsies

And now Las Vegas' Caesar's
Palace is opening a Regional
Office in Munich ...

Earlier this week the attention of some curious Kats was drawn to this document which appears to prove that the fees received by the European Patent Office have resulted in a 'profit' for that office of more than 55 million euros -- which that good office is donating to its employees. The EPO's Administrative Council has decided that each full-time employee is to receive a tax-free and deduction-free sum of 4,000 euros, which is as good a way of 'losing' 27,656,000 euro as this Kat can think of. Another 27,656,000 euro is being donated to the Reserve Fund for Pensions for former employees.  Merpel, who is always fascinated by other people's money, thinks that 55 million euro is a good deal more than she can easily spend in an afternoon; she wonders, though, wherever did all that money come from, and to whom did it belong before it fell into the pockets of the EPO?  (A katpat goes to patentanwalt Rainer Boeckelen for this lead).

Some patent-y readers have often expressed an interest in knowing when the special edition of the PCT Applicant’s Guide, prepared for students sitting the EQE [European Qualifying Examination] exams, will be available. WIPO's Rosina Bisi (katpat!) has kindly written to let us know that WIPO is in the process of compiling a new version, which will contain the entire contents of the Guide as of 31 December 2012, and that the plan is to post it on the WIPO website during the week of 21 January. Rosina promises to tell the Kats when its live and available for download.


Just out and not yet in the IPKat's paws is a new book, International Copyright Law and Access to Education in Developing Countries, by Susan Isiko Štrba. According to the publisher's blurb,

"In International Copyright Law and Access to Education in Developing Countries: Exploring Multilateral Legal and Quasi-Legal Solutions, Susan Isiko Štrba offers an understanding of the legal relationship between copyright regulation and access to education in developing countries, and explores both institutional and normative ways to facilitate access to printed educational and research materials.

The author explores the question of whether limitations or exceptions (flexibilities) in international intellectual property law can be utilised to balance the private interest of intellectual property right holders and the public interest of IP users and highlights the role of national institutions in crafting case-by-case educational exceptions in ways that may make WTO retaliation more onerous. Institutional reform and normative re-ordering within the intellectual property system and affiliated institutions are evaluated within an overall framework of new approaches for providing access solutions".

Full details of this title, which is published by Brill and retails at £112, can be found here.