Wednesday whimsies

Early birds, and not-so-early ones.  In this Kat's little essay about patent litigation conferences at the tail-end of last week, he should have mentioned that, in addition to the reduction that IBC is offering to blog readers who register for the 6th International Patent Litigation Conference that takes place in London on 4 and 5 December, there is also an Early Bird reduced-rate registration that ends this Friday, 26 September and a Not-Quite-So-Early Bird rate for those who register by 7 November. After that, there's still the 15% IPKat readers' reduction if you quote the VIP KatCode FKW82525IPKB.

Not so sad. The European Patent Office's Patent Information News has been described to this Kat by one of its dedicated readers as "a must-read for sad librarians". While not sufficiently stirred to deny the veracity of this proposition, this Kat does find some virtue in it.  The most recent issue, for example, reports on a new service, the "Global Dossier", which provides "file wrapper" information for the EPO and China, with Japan, Korea and the EPO expected to be included later.  What's more, with effect from 1 January 2015, Korea is to permit filing in English, although a Korean translation will still be required within three months of filing the request for examination or after 14 months, whichever is earlier. This should make life easier for a number of currently grumpy professionals ...


The Right to Health: a Multi-Country Study of Law, Policy and Practice is about to be published by T. M. C. Asser Press. It is edited by B. Toebes, R. Ferguson, M.M. Markovic and O. Nnamuchi. According to the publishers,

"This interdisciplinary study analyses how the internationally guaranteed human ‘right to health’ is realized by States at a national level. It brings together scholars from more than ten different countries, each of them analyzing the right to health in his or her country or region".

The book launch appears to be accompanied, on 9 October 2014, by a seminar, organised by managing editor Brigit Toebes, on the importance of essential medicines legislation for the realization of the right to health. This Kat didn't spot any use of the word "patent" on the book's web page or on that relating to the seminar. He does hope that the p-word will be mentioned and dealt with in an appropriately respectful manner. If any reader is about to read the book or attend the seminar, it would be great to know how IP is being treated.

Eat while you think.  The IP Publishers and Editors Lunch 2014 lunch on 25 November [the details of which can be found in the top left-hand corner of this weblog's home page, at the top of the side bar] now has 30 people signed up, with more in prospect. It's free, it's fun and it offers considerable food for thought with regard to the present and -- if there is one -- the future of intellectual property publishing in an age in which the internet and the social media are king and everyone hates having to update those pesky loose-leaves.  If you fit the profile, do come!

Around the weblogs.  First, here's a blog which this Kat has only just discovered -- Wigs & Gowns.  It's a fashion law blog that regularly publishes articles in the area of IP. The author, Elaine O'Connor, is also academic editor of the Westminster Law Review where she focus on intellectual property law and entertainment law papers.  Elsewhere, Ben Challis has been working overtime on the 1709 Blog: the Turtles, Sherlock Holmes and Avatar are among his subjects, while on IP Finance fellow Kat has some highly pertinent comments about patents as (i) assets and (ii) an asset class which some believers may find quite shocking. Finally, on PatLit, Stefano posts a handsome comment on the Australian perspective on the US Supreme Court ruling in Myriad.