Friday fantasies

Forthcoming IP events. Even though it's the summer (in the Northern hemisphere, at any rate) and there's not much going on in terms of conferences and other events, new forthcoming attractions for the rest of the year and indeed beyond continue to be added to the IPKat's Forthcoming Events list. Do check it out when you have the chance!

Grump, Dopey, Sleepy ... surely we aren't
talking about IP Ministers?

Around the weblogs. Mark Anderson's post on IP Draughts, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: What is the point of IP ministers?" needs little explanation and is well worth a read. Over on IP Finance, this blogger's live post, "IP evolution: a chance to talk", has attracted a bit of dialogue on the subject of turning IP into a real asset class by providing better information about it, while Neil asks how one can value the contribution made by a design to a successful product. Via Australian barrister and IP scholar Warwick Rothnie comes a pointer to Crikey.com.au, which in turn links to what it says is the Commonwealth Government’s Online Copyright Infringement Discussion Paper July 2014. When he received this information, the Discussion Paper didn't seem to be on the Attorney General Department's website -- but it is now [if you're about to go on holiday, don't! Submissions close on 1 September]. Finally, SOLO IP takes a look at the ambitions of IPReg, the UK's regulatory authority for patent and trade mark attorneys.

Medicinal product assessment has
become increasingly sophisticated
since the days of Lewis Carroll

Medicinal product assessment: a new defence to UK patent infringement. The Legislative Reform (Patents) Order 2014 (SI 2014/1997) has now been published and affects the scope of patent infringement in the United Kingdom. This Kat would doubtless have kept tucking it away into the furthest recesses of his "things to do if only I had the time", had it not been for a prompt prompt [the first 'prompt' being an adjective, the second a noun] from Graham Burnett-Hall (Marks & Clerk), who earns a katpat for his pains.  This Order tweaks section 60 of the UK's Patents Act 1977 a bit, by adding add a new subsection 6(D). This provides that anything done in, or for the purposes of, a medicinal product assessment, which would otherwise constitute an infringement of a patent for an invention, should be regarded as having been done for experimental purposes relating to the subject matter of the invention [and therefore as not infringing the patent]. The words "medicinal product assessment" get a crisp new definition under s.60(6)(E) as being any testing, course of testing or other activity undertaken with a view to providing data for any of the specified purposes, which include obtaining marketing authorisations or complying with regulatory rules. If you are planning to retire or to change your career on or before 30 September, you don't need to know about this Order since it only comes into force on 1 October 2014. There are a few other tweaklets to the Patents Act, so do take a good look at the Order.

"Eugh!" But surely we're not
being rude about the CJEU ...

The Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court are words that are never far from the heart and mind of Rechtsanwalt and IP enthiusiast Ingve Björn Stjerna. Ingve informs us of his latest article, this time on the hearing of the Spanish actions before the Court of Justice of the European Union to challenge the validity and legal basis on those two planks of the new European patent regime. You can read "“Unitary patent“ and court system – The oral hearing on Spain’s actions at the CJEU" here in English and, under its German title „Einheitspatent“ und Gerichtsbarkeit – Die mündliche Verhandlung der Klagen Spaniens beim EuGH" here. Ingve attended the hearing in Luxembourg, his impression being that it was not too conclusive in relation to the Court’s position. If you've not already taken a look, Ingve's archive of interesting bits and pieces concerning patents in the new Europe can be accessed here [Merpel draws the attention of readers to the dictionary entry for EUGH here].