Monday miscellany I

Something to smile about -- even it's work-related.  There have been quite a few changes to the IPKat's list of forthcoming events recently. Do take the opportunity to check them out!

Forthcoming fun.  There are just four days to go till the IPKat's IPEC competition closes.  Plenty of entries have been received so far, some of which are quite witty and others of which are painfully tortuous.  For details of the competition click here.

Fancy a dalliance with the Alliance?  The Alliance for Intellectual Property [formerly the Alliance Against Intellectual Property Theft -- a name of which you can still find traces in the Alliance's domain name] had its Third Annual IP Conference in London earlier this month, kindly sponsored by BSA|The Software Alliance, the Creative Coalition Campaign and 21st Century Fox. This Kat, in attendance (see Katposts here and here) was surprised at how many IP folk in attendance were completely unknown to him by name or face -- a sure sign that the former niche topic of IP is now a mainstream issue. Speeches by Vince Cable MP and Michel Barnier, plus a copy of the slides containing the Populus polling data showing consumer attitudes to intellectual property, can be uneartherd on the Alliance website here. The Conference also saw the launch of a Call for Views, in which the Alliance seeks feedback to help it develop a Manifesto for IP, in preparation for the UK General Election in 2015, a clear set of actions for the next Government. This, says the Alliance,

"... will outline those actions we believe are needed to make the UK the location of choice for people wanting to set-up IP-rich businesses and deliver brilliant products, content and designs to the public. This is not a re-run of past reviews into the intellectual property framework. It is designed to uncover what those at the coal-face think the next Government should, or indeed should not, do to ensure IP-rich businesses flourish".

 This Call for Views can be accessed here. Adds the Alliance:

"Please don’t feel restricted to the questions in the questionnaire, all comments are welcome. Similarly, don’t feel obliged to answer all the questions". 

Alternatively, you can post a copy of your thoughts to the discreet Susie Winter, who will ensure that they are kept anonymous: just send them as a pdf to Susie at susie@allianceforip.co.uk.

Horror of horrors!  Patent attorney Kfir Luzzatto's Crossing the Meadow, first published in 2003 and winner of the Best Horror award in the P&E Readers' Poll, has now been reissued with a new cover, which you can see on the left.  Meanwhile, Kfir's latest novel, Mice, has just been published and you can purchase it here.  This Kat is impressed at Kfir's output and wonders whether being a patent attorney is perhaps an excellent training for anyone contemplating writing fiction.  Merpel is however concerned that, when any patent attorney turns his hand to literature, the description of his output as "horror" should not extend to the claims contained in his patent applications.

EPO repair man

EPO Rules OK.  The European Patent Office has now posted on its website the texts of the Administrative Council Decisions revising Rules 36 and 164 EPC. They are

• Decision of the Administrative Council of 16 October 2013 amending Rules 36, 38 and 135 of the Implementing Regulations to the European Patent Convention (CA/D 15/13) and 
• Decision of the Administrative Council of 16 October 2013 amending Rule 135 and 164 of the Implementing Regulations to the European Patent Convention (CA/D 17/13)

In brief, from 1 April 2014 there will be no time limits for Divisional filing (save pendency of the parent); from 1 November 2014, EPO searches will be available for all claimed inventions on EPO Regional phase entry, subject to further search fees for previously-unsearched-by-the-EPO claims, and regardless of which office was the ISA or SISA. A Katpat to Mark Jones for being first with the news; a further katpat to Mark Roberts (JA Kemp) for this link to his firm's news item on the same subject.

Around the weblogs. IP Finance boasts two good posts over the past week: Mike Mireles considers the effects of aggressive lawyering by trade mark attorneys on behalf of their clients and Neil Wilkof seriously examines the proposition that there is any sort of liner correlation between money spent on R&D and domestic employment.  Ben Challis continues his CopyKat-themed copyright round-ups for the 1709 Blog; reports from the MARQUES Class 46 trade mark blog on Spain's first AdWord case and protracted litigation in Finland over registrability of the F1 trade mark make one wonder whether the gap between the performance of Europe's busiest IP courts and the rest is as pronounced in trade mark litigation as it is assumed to be for patent litigation.  Finally, congratulations to IP Draughts, an important and highly readable contribution to debate over many areas of non-contentious IP practice which helped blogger and katfriend Mark Anderson achieve Highly Commended in the Law Society's Awards for Excellence 2013.


New journal from OUP.  The Journal of Law and the Biosciences (JLB) has just been launched by Oxford University Press. According to the notice on the JLB's website, it is

"... is the first peer-reviewed legal journal focused on the advances at the intersection of law and the biosciences. A co-venture between Duke University, Harvard University Law School, and Stanford University, and published by Oxford University Press, this open access, online, and interdisciplinary academic journal publishes cutting-edge scholarship in this important new field. The Journal contains original and response articles, essays, and commentaries on a wide range of topics, including bioethics, neuroethics, genetics, reproductive technologies, stem cells, enhancement, patent law, and food and drug regulation. JLB is published as one volume with three issues per year with new articles posted online on an ongoing basis ...".

This Kat has, through no fault of his own, been appointed to the JLB's editorial board, in which capacity he should like to encourage the submission of learned contributions on patents in the biosciences, not to mention articles on the legal and commercial dimensions to pharmaceutical patent term extension, whether in the European Union or beyond it. If you have any bright ideas, just get in touch!