Thursday thingies

Well done, Dublin. This Kat spent a pleasant day in Dublin on Tuesday, at the Intellectual Property Law conference of the Intellectual Property Law Committee of the Law Society of Ireland (see blogposts here on patents and here on plain packaging/trade marks).  He did not however write a blogpost on the final session, this being a full-blooded debate between himself and Bob Clarke on Europe would be better served by introducing a US-style 'fair use' defence to copyright infringement in place of Europe's patchworked pseudo-harmonisation of Article 5 of the InfoSoc Directive. It was a fun debate: the speakers were in complete agreement as to what the US law was, but completely at odds with one another as to how it should be assessed as a commercial and social regulator of the balance between protecting creativity and encouraging  it. In effect, what one speaker denounces as unspeakable uncertainty is praised by the other as essential flexibility.  This Kat -- who thoroughly enjoyed the experience of attending a conference where name-badges were not supplied because everyone seemed to know everyone else -- came away with two particular thoughts:

(i) how effectively a debate can explain and highlight legal issues, rather than having one speaker filling the available time with his own, unchallenged thoughts [watch this space, adds Merpel -- a report on the trade mark/design law overlap, keenly debated by katfriends Alex von Muehlendahl and Sir Robin Jacob, will be following in the not-too-distant future];

(ii) what a lovely IP culture exists in Ireland and how sad it would be if that culture were to be weakened or sidelined if/when Ireland is marginalised by the way the unitary patent court proposals are implemented.

Thanks, MIP.  This Kat and his wife were invited to a free dinner last night, courtesy of Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) magazine, to attend its Global Awards 2013 ceremony at The Dorchester, Park Lane.   Congratulations to all those good folk who travelled from far and wide to celebrate their own -- and also their competitors' -- achievements.  He'd also just like to put on record his gratitude and appreciation for the very kind things that were said about him; he hopes that he will be able to justify them.

JIPLP competition. If you read the jiplp weblog, IP Finance or (less likely) JIPLP's web page, you will already know that the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice has launched its 2013 competition. The object? Entrants must explain in which IPRs, to a maximum of five, they would invest their hypothetical $1 billion investment fund. Details can be found here.