Wednesday whimsies

The biter bitten (or "it's all in the game"). Thanks to the vigilance of emeritus guest Kat Miri Frankel we can bring you this remarkable piece of news.  From Escapist magazine comes the unexpected headline "Nintendo Crushes Patent Troll, Then Buys Its Portfolio", a short note by Andy Chalk that you can read in full here.  Nintendo's acquisition came after the wannabe troll, IA Labs, found that after two rounds of unsuccessful infringement litigation over the Wii Fit and other peripherals it couldn't pay Nintendo's costs.

Another case to solve ...

Can you help another friend?  The IPKat thanks those readers who came forward to offer some office experience to his young lawyer friend who wondered what it would be like to work in a commercial law practice for a while.  Now he's asking another favour.  He has a friend who is a seasoned IP practitioner with getting on for two decades of experience, with a particular strength in trade marks and an enjoyment of travel.  This friend, a talented linguist who has been been in practice in some interesting places, would now like to work in London.  If you would like to know more, email the IPKat at theipkat@gmail.com and let him know: he will forward all serious expressions of interest.

Almunia: commissioned by Watford FC

Pay TV: from remote to control?  "I came across this news which might be of your interest", writes katfriend Magali Delhaye.  The news in question is entitled "Commission investigates restrictions affecting cross-border provision of pay TV services" and you can access it here.  Although cross-border pay TV is a competition law matter, it is closely related to the Premier League/Murphy case (noted by the IPKat here) on the issue of licensing restrictions that give broadcasters an exclusive live broadcasting right for Premier League matches on a territorial basis, generally corresponding to the territory of a Member State.  European Commision Vice-President Joaquín Almunia´s speech on this topic can be read here. On the subject of pay TV and, via Murphy, football, this Kat wonders whether Joaquin is any relation of Manuel ...

Remember the good old days,
when you could still blame
the hardware ...?

Around the weblogs. Here on EverythingTrademarks.com Roberto Ledesma discusses the legal issues that arise in the United States when people use third-party Tweets in their own advertisements.  Over on PatLit, DLA Piper lawyers Claire Bennett and Andrew Preston give their perspective on the recent complex and, for many, perplexing litigation between Virgin and Zodiac over an aeroplane seat patent, litigation which both sides appear to have won.  REDSKINS is given some further treatment, this time by Mike Mireles on IP Finance, on some unusual off-field moves by the team's owner Dan Snyder. Class 46 records OHIM's latest response to its website upgrade [Merpel asks: 'don't you mean 'downgrade'?] saga, while David Musker, on the Class 99 design blog, records a happier episode in Alicante, where a design's priority was protected after a little tidying-up job and the 1709 Blog takes note of yet another copyright-related review -- this time into the behaviour of some of the UK's best/worst loved (depending if you pay or are paid) collecting societies here.  Finally, on the SOLO IP blog, Sally Cooper permits herself the luxury of a mini-rant on the apparent exclusion of intellectual property from the Royal Society of Arts' discussion of creativity in the 21st century.

Representation before the Unified Patent Court: a chance to discuss. The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) is hosting a seminar on 21 January in which Mr Justice Birss and others will discuss the proposed representation rights under Article 48 of the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court.  It's still not too late to squeeze in. Details, together with the text of Article 48, are available from PatLit here.


Not the only ones. It seems that OHIM is not the only organisation to have a spot of trouble with its website.  Today this Kat received the following email from Etienne Sanz de Acedo, the International Trademark Association (INTA) Chief Executive Officer and, incidentally, a former Head of Communications Service at OHIM.  He writes:

Dear INTA community,

Registration for INTA’s 136th Annual Meeting will now open on Wednesday, January 22, 2014.

We apologize for having to postpone registration, which had been scheduled to open today. There are some unforeseen technical problems that must be resolved before registration can be opened. We thank you for your patience.

We will extend the Early Registration Deadline until Friday, March 7, 2014.

We are eagerly looking forward to welcoming you to Hong Kong for INTA’s first Annual Meeting in Asia.

Thanks, Etienne, not just for your apology but for using the word "community".  INTA has worked hard to transform itself from a rebadged United States Trademark Association, which is what it was for most of its life, into something that increasingly reflects the interests, the anxieties and the enterprise of an ever-changing world of innovation, enterprise and partying balancing the needs of brand owners, users and service providers.

Do genetics grab you? If so, take a look at "Does the patentability of genetic materials impact human rights in Australia? An assessment in light of the Myriad Genetics appeal case" [on which see Norman Siebrasse's comment on this weblog, here], an impressive dissertation penned by katfriend and occasional blog contributor Jani Ihalainen.  You can download Jani's dissertation here. This enterprising soul is setting his sights on qualifying for the Canadian bar.  If you want to say hello to him, buy him a drink, give him a job, you can email him at jani.ihalainen@gmail.com.