Wednesday Whimsies

A word about goodwill -- or is that "goodwill"?  As in previous years, the IPKat and Merpel would like to extend a cordial greeting to their readers -- both Jewish and non-Jewish -- and to express the hope that they will enjoy peace, happiness and prosperity in the coming year.  In the context of a blog driven by intellectual property issues, words tend to have a meaning that reflects their immediate surroundings.  Thus "goodwill" is the attractive force that draws consumers to the brands and trade names of their choice; "benefit" is all too often a commodity that bears a financial price-tag; "relief" is not a state of mind but a court order, and so on.

Let's pretend for a moment that goodwill is a spirit of gratuitous kindness and generosity shown by one person to another; that magnanimity can be practised without having to apologise for it, and that tolerance and respect can be removed from the glass cases in which they are stored, starved of the oxygen of regular use, so that they can take their place in the hearts of man.  If we can achieve this, we can make at least some small contribution to making the world a happier, safer, better place for the coming twelve months -- and even beyond.

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Actual colour, but
not actual size ...

And now it's number 11.  The Butterworths Intellectual Property Law Handbook (11th edition) has just been published by LexisNexis.  You can read all about it on the publisher's website here.  This Kat, as its Consultant Editor, is particularly pleased to see it in print, since this is the only publication he's involved with which exists only in the old-fashioned world of print-and-paper in which he was raised.  It's possible that an electronic edition has been contemplated, but apparently many users -- aware of this volume's short shelf life and all-too-ephemeral format -- take joy in writing their own annotations in the margins and in plastering the pages with repositionable adhesive notelets [Merpel asks, does he mean "yellow stickies?"  He won't say "Post-its" on the basis that Post-it is a trade mark].  The Kat apologises for the Handbook's price which, at £126, would have paid for five month's rent on the apartment in Canterbury in which, in 1973, he began working on his doctorate -- but in reality it's good value for money.  With 2,140 pages, each page works out at only 5.89 pence ...

NOTE: as soon as the Kat has had a sufficiently bright and inspiring competition, he will offer a copy of the 11th edition as the prize.

Recent publications.  For those who love loose leaves, the good news is that autumn is upon us.  One such deciduous publication which is also, paradoxically, an evergreen is Sweet & Maxwell's European Patent Decisions, the 44th release for which, current to July 2013, landed in this Kat's terrestrial mailbox late last week.  A more traditional form of book is Laure Marino's Droit de la Propriété Industrielle, the details of which you can retrieve from her website here. Another initiative with a French flavour, which you can read about on PatLit here, is a trilingual 306-page presentation of the 15th Draft of the Rules of Procedure for the Unitary Patent Court, the unofficial French version of which has been prepared by Véron & Associés.

No, not this bus ...

Around the free events ...  Art & Artifice's "Red Bus" art-and-copyright seminar on 24 October now has 110 registrants signed up for it -- but there's still room for more.  If you'd like to add your name to the growing list, you can check out details of the seminar (which is free) and how to register for it by clicking here. Meanwhile, though it's not taking place till 23 January 2014, the third JIPLP-GRUR Int. event, comparing passing off law with the civil law delict of unfair competition, already has no fewer than 30 people signed up to attend. Again, you can check out details of this special event (which is also free) and how to register for it by clicking here.

... and the not-so-free.  CLT's annual Fashion and Intellectual Property conference, a blogger-fuelled and entirely fun event at London's Holborn Bars, runs on 16 October and is now booking up nicely: details can be found here.  Kats in residence will be Jeremy (in the chair), Eleonora and Laetitia -- with one-time guest Kat Robert too!  Do join us.