Friday fantasies

Katfriend Hugh C. Hansen (Professor of Law and Director of the much-loved Fordham IP Institute & IP Conference) has been busy again. He is currently working on a paper about the trade mark jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union and its effects in the EU. Says Hugh:

"I have my views, of course [as this Kat knows, since they had quite a sharp exchange of views on this very topic at this year's Fordham IP Conference. Hugh's views are here], but I’ve decided to add a "snapshot" of the views of those who do “trade mark” law (UK and EU usage), especially those based in Europe. Everyone who does “trade mark” law (proper usage) is encouraged to join in, however.

Therefore, I would greatly appreciate it if you would participate in this anonymous survey consisting of 12 short questions, most of which are multiple choice. It should take no more than five minutes, ten at the absolute most. Please answer with your immediate impression. If you don't have an immediate impression, just skip the question.

Your input is greatly appreciated, says Hugh, but make it snappy!  The deadline for completing the survey is Tuesday 10 June.  The link to the survey is https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/G5HKJSQ  If you wish to give more expansive answers, just send them to Hugh by email; they will be treated as confidential.

Remember Patently in Love?  This romantic romp [reviewed on this weblog here] about office life in a firm of patent attorneys has been withdrawn and refiled (actually re-released with a new publisher) under the new title Girl On The Run. Says author Rhoda Baxter, "It's a bargain at £1.99". You can buy it on Amazon here.  "Personally", sniffs Merpel, "I prefer the old title ..."

"I wanted to make you aware of a blog post we have put up today on the CLIP Board, our blog commenting on the Competition Law/IP interface", writes Bristows' Sophie Lawrance. Well, no self-respecting Kat would willingly admit to not being aware of it in the first place, but that's another matter. Continues Sophie: "This one is about the tricky policy issue of bifurcation at the Unified Patent Court [UPC], and what we see to be the relevance of competition law. In the article, we refer back to your earlier informative post [Annsley's famous "we won't have no stinkin' trolls" post, here] on the Commission’s response to some earlier questions posed by Marc Tarabella MEP, and have a look at some more recent questions that he has raised which again seek to put the Commission on the spot".

Another new blog to twitch the Kats' whiskers is Ip Lat Am, an IP blog about IP law in Latin America.  According to Katfriend Pablo A. Palazzi (Allende & Brea, Argentina), Ip Lat Am proposes to blog news, cases and regulations. "For now we only have covered Paraguay, Argentina and Mexico", says Pablo, who is trying to contact local colleagues who may be interested in writing in the blog.  The idea is to try to have the articles written in English or with an English summary. Good luck, Pablo and friends, says the IPKat!

It's never too young to join
the European Patent Academy ...

We have learned from the European Patent Academy that this year’s Boards of appeal and key decisions conference is coming up. According to our most impeccable source of information, the 2014 edition of this event will include sessions on late-filed requests [for patents, explains Merpel, not for birthday presents], added subject-matter, article 84 EPC and sufficiency of disclosure as well as a mock trial. The technical fields addressed will be the perennial favourite computer-implemented inventions and, for the first time, therapeutic and surgical methods.  This year's event takes place on 8 and 9 October 2014 in the congenial surroundings of the European Patent Office, The Hague, Netherlands. Further information is available here.

Trying very hard to compete with the main attraction of the evening, a rare excursion into town to celebrate Mrs Kat's birthday, Union is holding its biennial Summer Event on the evening of 26 June at The Royal Society, London.  Previous speakers have included Francis Gurry (Director General of WIPO) and this very Kat.  This time round, the lucky soul who has been selected for a particularly tasty and amicable dinner following his speech is the still-popular Mr Justice Birss, who will be providing a "state of the nation" address. Click here for further details.

Around the weblogs.  IP Finance carries a fresh post from Keith Mallinson (WiseHarbor) on the European Commission's posturings on safe harbours, patent infringement and injunctive relief in respect of standard-essential patents. Elsewhere, on Class 46 Laetitia considers a case of Dracula not being a very useful trade mark for vodka; the jiplp weblog carries Paul Steven's current intelligence note on the CJEU's ruling in Svensson on the legal status of hyperlinks in Europe, and Rachel Buker on Art & Artifice brings us up to date on the implications for the world of art of the City of Detroit's bankruptcy.