Friday fantasies

It was with pleasure that this Kat learned that the mysterious and magical Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA) has announced that Chris McLeod is succeeding Catherine Wolfe as President of the Institute, for a two-year term.  This is good news, since it involves the succession of Katfriends.  What ITMA Presidents actually do is a matter of speculation, but what they're supposed to do is to look pretty,do lots of delegating and take full blame responsibility for the policy and direction of the Institute and for maintaining contact with UK legislators and international organisations [Merpel still wants to know why ITMA never got a Charter, like the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA), and why indeed ITMA never merged with CIPA either. Was it the tasty prospect of two Christmas dinners rather than one, or was there some rather more subtle force at work?  Do tell!]

Holding a hedgehog: it's
not as prickly as handling
the Madrid Protocol ...

Coexistence Agreements.  If you are heading out to the International Trademark Association Meeting in Hong Kong next week, and have nothing better to do, why not join this Kat while he is conducting his Table Topic on Negotiating Coexistence Agreements (that's coded TW15) on Wednesday morning from 8 am to 10 am?  Numbers are limited but, if you miss this topic, there are loads of other trade mark enthusiasts with whom you can have breakfast and a reasonable chat (click here for the full list). From registering slogans to best practices in the social media, how to handle the Madrid Protocol to how to crochet your very own logo, there's something for everyone. And while you're in Hong Kong, don't forget to come and say hello.  Three Kats will be in evidence (Jeremy, Birgit and Neil) and you might just be able to catch one or two of them at this year's Meet the Bloggers session, kindly and altruistically hosted by Marks & Clerk at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (for details just click here).

Around the weblogs.  This Kat, writing on SOLO IP, has a little rant at the expense of those expensive directories of professional experts to which IP practitioners are encouraged, if not expected, to contribute.  Class 46 reports on a dispute between a law firm and two former members as to the ownership of copyright in what became the firm's logo, a dispute which has spilled over from Mexico to Spain. The same blog also gives an account of an ingenious scam, all the way from Hungary, in which dealers in fake products concealed them within their own branding when moving them from place to place.

Trade mark podcast -- now in black and white.  Katfriend Rolf Claessen has excitedly emailed us today with the hot-off-the-press (actually, not-off-the-press) news that he has just released the first episode in his series of IP Fridays podcasts, here.  He adds: "You might want to listen in in the podcast where we talk about the figurative black & white trade marks. This is simply outrageous by OHIM and the other offices [the "this" to which Rolf refers is actually this]. Something they simply did not think through". Could be ...