Monday miscellany

There are easier ways ...

Self-centred, or merely preoccupied?  The 1709 Blog's sidebar poll on the copyright position regarding selfies taken by black-crested macaque monkeys (or at least by one of them) has now notched up more than 250 responses, and there's still a week to go before the poll closes.  Do let us know what you think, if you haven't already. You can find the 1709 Blog's sidebar on the right hand side of the page you get to by clicking here.

Katnews. It is with pride and pleasure that this Kat announces a matter of no mere significance.  As of Monday of next week, fellow Kat Eleonora, our very own copyright enthusiast with a penchant for punchy posts and powerful PowerPoints, takes up her new permanent position as Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at the University of Southampton.  The university has a distinguished Law School, which has produced such celebrated alumni as Geoffrey Hobbs QC, and Professor David Llewelyn. We wish Eleonora the best of luck in her new position and congratulate her on making such a splash with her e-LAWnora copyright law consultancy, which continues to flourish.


Back in July, the IPKat noted the publication of Pirates of Bollywood by Kalyan Kankanala, this being another work of IP fiction [you can check it out here].  The Kat called for someone to review it.  Katfriend Shalini Bengani kindly stepped up to volunteer -- and here's her verdict:

"Project Pi is ON, Mr Krishnan". It is with this foreboding Project Piracy plan that Dr Kalyan C. Kankanala, an IP lawyer and the managing partner of Indian Intellectual Property firm BananaIP, begins his third work of fiction Pirates of Bollywood. This copyright law fiction has project piracy as its lodestar, and this book indeed has all the makings of (dare I say) a Bollywood Masala movie, albeit with the only difference that the author casts his mojo by interweaving the legal aspects of the copyright law debate within its theatrical setting of Bollywood in Mumbai

It has won my rave review as it is a very riveting story which explores and educates the reader about the perils of piracy that plague our modern day technologically driven society. Most certainly, this book would wield its impact on the reader's understanding of the nexus between Bollywood actors, producers, entertainment lawyers and cops which has been revealed through a blizzard of investigation with the motive to pare down piracy. The author seamlessly introduces themes of Free Software, Open Source Software, and Creative Commons while giving an insight into how piracy operates (i.e from persons pirating films to persons distributing the content). At the core of the debate is the Copyleft Foundation which was founded in order to make creative works freely available for use, modification, and sharing by everyone in the society and a file sharing website called SHARE, built by students of the International Institute of Technology, Bombay.

The protagonists of this story are Arjun. the famed IP lawyer, and Helen Joseph, the young, energetic and dynamic Assistant Commissioner of Police in Mumbai. The reader’s attention would also be caught by the hapless character of Ilahi who is a teen selling pirated DVDs. The author manages to evoke the reader's sympathy for the likes of Ilahi as well as the assassin who commits cold-blooded murder in the story, by justifying their venality: the former is the only bread-winner for the family of six and the latter had a little sister suffering from spastic cerebral palsy, a physical disability due to brain damage.

Ultimately yours truly hopes that this crisp read will prove to be not only informative but also relished by one and all during their summer holidays or on a short distance flight (as it is all of 164 pages).

Around the weblogs. Clare Young, on the Allens' Scintilla IP weblog, reports on some fascinating litigation in Australia between AstraZeneca and Apotex over obviousness as the 'starting point' for assessing a patent's validity. IP Finance carries another post on the increasingly popular topic of financial reporting, this time in the context of the under-reporting (or non-reporting) of the risk of copyright infringement litigation in equity research reports.  On IP Tango, Patricia Covarrubia is swift to pick up on a spot of copyright infringement involving popular performer Shakira. Finally, on Class 46, Pedro Malaquias writes up a ding-dong battle between successful Portuguese football club Porto and football shirt manufacturer Silmoda over the SUPER PORTO trade mark.