Friday fantasies

Forthcoming events.  Here's your regular reminder of the virtues of checking the IPKat's Forthcoming Events page from time to time.  Some events are free and/or are sponsored by the IPKat or his friends. Several new events will be listed in the course of the coming week so, if you don't like what you see this time round, come back soon! Incidentally, the IPKat is contemplating some seminars and events of his own in the coming months. together with a joint seminar with the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) and in addition to the event he is sharing next month with his friends at the British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association (BLACA), for which full details will very soon be published.  All IPKat events are free to attend, so don't worry about not being able to afford to register.

Old Nick.  Not a formal event, but a cheerful chat and a drink -- IPKat team bloggers Jeremy and Darren will be in attendance at The Old Nick this coming Tuesday, between 5 pm and 6.30 pm. All are welcome to join us and mull over some of your favourite intellectual property topics.

A touch of silk.  The IPKat and Merpel are delighted to congratulate Hugo Cuddigan (11 South Square) on the announcement that he is to be elevated to the exalted status of Queen's Counsel, or "taking silk").  Hugh has featured in litigation spread over a variety of IP rights, but this Kat associates him with his recent involvement in a copyright claim involving the Bob Marley classic "No Woman No Cry",  BSI Enterprises Ltd and Cayman Music (Bob Marley) v Blue Mountain [2014] EWHC 1690 (Ch).  A quick flip through the other 92 names on the list of freshly-appointed QCs did not instantly reveal any other dyed-in-the-wool IP practitioners but, if the Kats have overlooked one, do please tell us and we will make amends.

Just published. Here's a new book for your contemplation: it's called Derecho de la Compentencia Desleal and its authors are four leading personalities in the Argentine intellectual property/competition firmament: Guillermo Cabanellas de las Cuevas, Pablo Palazzi, A. Sánchez Herrero and D. H. Serebrinsky. Published in Buenos Aires by Heliasta, it's in Spanish and, says Katfriend Pablo, it contains nearly 800 pages of history, sources, cases and all the typology of unfair competition -- a body of law that no serious IP owner or practitioner can avoid once he appreciates the interplay between competition law and IP rights.  Click here for further information.

Around the weblogs.  In his capacity as editor of the Oxford University Press-published Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, this Kat had a good deal to say on the jiplp weblog about a recent report which headlined the proposition that OUP had banned the use of the words "pig", "pork" and "sausage" from its publications -- an almost impossible ask for IP lawyers. The day before, the same blog featured a note by French IP expert and Katfriend Richard Milchior on proof of the existence and ownership of copyright in a shoe design.  Elsewhere The SPC Blog reports yesterday's ruling on patent term extension by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Synflorix case, Case C-631/13 Forsgren. Finally, over on Class 46, Anthonia Ghalamkarizadeh gives an account of a German case in which the court had to consider the legal effect of trade mark infringements that continued during the period of a provisionally invalid cease-and-desist undertaking (a topic which even this seasoned blogger has never previously encountered).

Feline thanks go to the German publication Legal Tribune Online for its piece, "Je suis Charlie" als Wortmarke angemeldet: Kommerzialisierte Katastrophe?", here, which gives a plug to Eleonora's Tuesday Katpost on  speculative JE SUIS CHARLIE trade mark applications.  Merpel is of course pleased to see that the Germans spell "Katastrophe" with an initial "K" ...  Still on the subject of Charlie Hebdo, a Katpat goes to Jean-Paul Triaille for forwarding us the tweet which established that the slogan's creator, Joachim Roncin, was not going to register it as a trade mark himself.