Wednesday whimsies

Fordham aftermath. Following last week's Fordham IP Conference [if you missed or avoided it, but your curiosity has got the better of you, the easiest place to start your overview is here], here are a few post-event items for you.

Fordham provides much food for thought

* This Kat has received several emails from readers who are asking when the final, corrected version of the transcripts of the Fordham sessions might be available. He doesn't know, but he can report that drafts of some of the sessions have already been transcribed and sent to participants for correction by 15 May -- so hang on in there, be patient. We'll let you know as soon as we hear anything concrete.

* A large chunk of the Fordham programme relates to copyright, a factor which has prompted fellow Kat Eleonora to prepare a handy summary on the copyright-flavoured 1709 Blog, here. If you want to know more, and engage in some serious interaction with other like-minded souls, there is still a space or two available on Eleonora' post-Fordham Copyright Catch-up, which takes place next Tuesday in Central London: details here.

* The IPKat's friends in Geneva at Intellectual Property Watch have posted a report on Fordham, "Fordham IP Event A Firehose Of Current IP Legal, Policy Debates", by William New. It's snuggling comfortably behind a paywall, but this won't deter IP Watch's dedicated band of subscribers.

* Two sets of PowerPoints from Fordham are now in the IPKat's possession. They are "Stop! in the Name of Law – How New EU Customs Laws Create Stumbling Blocks for Intellectual Property Owners" by Christian W. Liedtke (read here or download here) and IPKat team member Jeremy's "IP Pioneers" presentation (read here or download here).

Betty Boop, Kat and crab: this
picture cries out for a witty caption ...

Around the weblogs.  It's all happening in the Southern Hemisphere right now: Jeremy Speres (Floor Swart, Stellenbosch) has joined the blogging team of Afro-IP. That blog now has two bearded Jeremys (Jeremies?), blogmeister Darren Olivier points out. Jeremy S has already opened his blogging account with this post on three recent South African trade mark cases. We wish him well. Meanwhile, on the biliingual IP Tango weblog, the charming and erudite Rodrigo Ramirez Herrera has posted "En Chile es posible renovar registros de marcas en 1 click con nuevo servicio del INAPI", here while, drifting to the Caribbean, this blogger notes an unsuccessful attempt to register the OLYMPIKUS trade mark in Costa Rica, foiled by the ever-viligant local Olympic Committee. Meanwhile, David Berry, writing for PatLit, discusses Octane Fitness LLC v ICON Health & Fitness, Inc., No. 12-1184 (U.S. April 29, 2014) and Highmark, Inc. v Allcare Health Management System, Inc., No. 12-1163 (U.S. April 29, 2014) -- in which the US Supreme Court has doubtless endeared itself to many of our readers by making it easier for US courts to award patent attorney fees.  Over on the jiplp weblog newly-promoted Bristows partner Jeremy Blum (well done!) and his colleague Nicholas Round explain the recent British passing off and trade mark infringement action in Betty Boop, in which the judge, Birss J, considered the paradox that it's easier for a fictional character to gain protection against unauthorised merchandising than for a real one.  Finally, on Art & Artifice, Angela Saltarelli posts this intriguing French case on the right of an art expert to refuse to authenticate a putatively genuine work.

Another Factor package ...

Borders change. Infringement continues.  That's the message from fellow blogger and IP practitioner Michael Factor, who has come up with yet another surprise initiative.  As an Israel-based practitioner he has teamed up with a Palestinian lawyer who is qualified to practise both on the West Bank and in Gaza, to offer a seamless trade mark registration package for the three zones.  The pair will be putting in an appearance at next month's INTA Meeting in Hong Kong.  You can read more about this on Michael's IP Factor blog here. This Kat welcomes all constructive initiatives of this nature.