Friday fantasies

A number of readers have emailed this Kat to remind him that Intellectual Asset Management magazine (IAM) has started the nomination process for selecting the 2015 inductees to the IP Hall of Fame. This, IAM explains, was designed as a not-for-profit exercise to honour individuals from areas such as business, politics, finance, the law, academia, the arts and science and technology who have played a major role in the creation of today’s IP system. If you want to nominate anyone, just click here to complete the nomination form and supply a paragraph of between 50 and 100 words to support your nomination. Nominations close on 4 March and the identities of the lucky few will be revealed in April, following which they will be fed and watered wined and dined at a gala dinner during the IPBC Global 2015 in San Francisco this coming June.  

Rouble Trouble? Not for everyone. "IP Protection Costs Cheaper In Russia Due To Rouble’s Dramatic Decline" is the headline of a brief note in Petosevic's latest IP News Eastern Europe bulletin earlier this week. According to Tatyana Kulikova, "The official fees for intellectual property matters in Russia went down by approximately 45-50 percent as the rouble recently hit a record low against the dollar and the euro. The change refers to the official exchange rates of foreign currencies against the rouble".  Presumably the cost of enforcement will also have fallen -- but so will the value of any damages awarded, warns Merpel. 

Union event.  On the subject of being wined and dined, 12 March 2015 is the date of the next Union dinner (the day has apparently been moved from Union's preferred Tuesday because of a “noisy harp concert”).  The special guest speaker will be the UK Intellectual Property Office's Deputy Director of Patents Andy Bartlett, who will be talking on the topic of “The Future of the Patent System – Harmonization and Globalisation”.  If you would like to participate, just contact Steven Wake at dinners@union-gb.com for more details. 

Free sample. As editor of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP), this Kat surprised to learn that very few people ever took up the opportunity to obtain a sample copy of the journal -- though prospective contributors in particular could benefit from one since very few pay much attention to the journal's house style.  Possibly the reason is that the link to it isn't immediately obvious to site visitors. If you want to get a sample copy, the place to click is here.  Incidentally, JIPLP does not seem to be alone in this regard: this Kat had some trouble ascertaining whether samples were available from other periodicals.  Accordingly, he and Merpel invite editors or publishers of other IP journals who do offer sample copies to let them know the link so that they can feature it on this weblog and our let readers know.