Friday fantasies

IP Publishers and Editors.  The IPKat had hoped to sort out arrangements for the annual get-together of IP Publishers and Editors later this month but, alas, time and opportunity conspired to make this impossible. Accordingly he's going to have a go at arranging this year's meeting some time near the beginning of the next year. Apologies all round!

Around the weblogs.Class 46 observes that the practice of applying for, and receiving, extended protection of geographical indications in the European Union via Regulations on non-minor amendments appears to have gone from a trickle to an avalanche.  Keith Mallinson, so often a guest blogger on IP Finance, now makes his debut post as a full team member with "Absurd (F)RAND licensing-rate determinations for SEPs", here. The SPC Blog brings latest news of patent term extension in Europe -- and what a muddle it all is.  This week saw a note on the Advocate General's Opinion in the latest Georgetown case (C484/12) together with a helpful translation into English, here. There's also an update from John Enser on the 1709 Blog on the latest news of web-blocking in England and Wales.


"Glory glory ... "  The Telegraph reports on the most recent victory of English Premier League football team Tottenham Hotspurs or, as they are better known, the Spurs.  According to the report (forwarded by Chris Torrero (katpat!), in relevant part:

A cock-and-ball story? Spurs's
bird is on the left 

"Spurs have instructed non-league club Fleet Spurs to find a new crest as it is too similar to their own, in a move that could cost the Wessex League Division One club up to £4,000. Fleet Spurs were set up in 1948 and have no affiliation with the Premier League club but the cockerel included in their design was deemed a threat to Spurs’s identity. Lawyers wrote to the Hampshire club and although Tottenham have allowed them to retain the design until it is next replaced, chairman Bryan Sheppard admits they had no option but to agree. “We haven’t got a penny to our name, we couldn’t afford to fight it,” he said. “It’s been quite stressful, we just felt really intimidated by the heavy-handed approach. But I can see where they are coming from.” ...

A spokesman for Tottenham Hotspur said: “If we do not take action to stop Fleet Spurs using our cockerel logo, it can undermine our ability to stop other unauthorised people who use our logo for commercial purposes, such as counterfeiters.

“We are very conscious that Fleet Spurs is a grass-roots club. For this reason we have been very careful not to ask them to do anything that might incur costs. “It was always the club’s approach to deal with this matter amicably and with a large dose of common sense.”

"Anything under the sun".  Patent law practitioners and students around the world will instantly recognise those words as emanating from the famous US Supreme Court ruling on patent subject matter in Diamond v Chakrabarty back in 1980.  Well, this Kat has just received word of Ananda Chakrabarty's latest exploits. Ananda, holder of the first patent on a genetically-modified organism, has just written an intriguing new book which consider utilising proteins from naturally-occurring symbiotic bacteria in the treatment of cancer. The book is titled Bugging Cancer.  This is what Ananda says about it:

"For centuries mankind has been intimidated by cancer, and research has been going on for many decades as to how to address or attack the disease meaningfully so as to eradicate it. But the causes of cancer are so diverse in nature that it is extremely difficult to predict or to control the conditions, let alone fully cure it. 

Bugging Cancer is a fictional book, based on real scientific progress in using bacteria and bacterial proteins to attack malignant tumour cells. Scientific results are extended in a fictional way to describe the cancer-fighting power of an imaginary bacterial protein termed neelazin. The book also mirrors present-day issues, including international competition for scientific talent, issues in patent law, research ethics, and financing.

Written by a team of seasoned scientific and business professionals, Bugging Cancer is sure to appeal to scientific researchers, patent attorneys, physicians, any anyone else interested in healthcare and scientific innovation. Interested media outlets should contact info@thinkbiotech.com for a review copy".