Monday miscellany

Calling all trade mark students. This Kat's friends in the International Trademark Association (INTA) are having their 137th Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, from 2 to 6 May. They tell him this:

San Diego Zoo-- or an INTA reception?

"This event would be a great experience for students who are interested in IP or trade mark law. During this meeting, we also have a Career Development Day on 4 May, which is a day designed with programming and networking opportunities specifically for law students. To help law students make their way to the Annual Meeting, we have a scholarship program that provides complimentary registration and up to $500 travel reimbursement to the meeting. Interested students should complete the application form and submit an essay for consideration". 

Five scholarships are on offer. Go for them!

Around the weblogs. The 1709 Blog is pleased to say that both the DACS and the CLA have kindly responded to the request for further information over their ongoing dispute. The same blog has been busy of late, with a big, bouncy CopyKat post from Ben Challis and, via Marie-Andrée Weiss, a fascinating analysis of a failed motion for summary judgment in a copyright fair use case involving an iconic 9/11 photograph.  The jiplp weblog is urging readers to come forward and offer to write up four IP titles that have so far escaped critical review. Finally, here's a curious and counter-intuitive decision from Finland on Paramount's challenge to the registration of MISSION POSSIBLE, by Class 46, Tiina Komppa.

The UK branch of the Association pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle (AIPPI) is holding a special event on "Legal privilege: the UK and US regimes and their applicability to IP practitioners" at the Holborn, Central London premises of Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co this Wednesday, 25 February. Speakers are Katfriend Michael Edenborough QC and Anthony C. Tridico. You can register and get further particulars here.

Still on the subject of the AIPPI, its German Group is teaming up with the IPKat's friends in the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (GRUR) to hold a Joint Brussels Workshop on "The proposed EU framework for protection of trade secrets - state of play and future challenges".  The date (and this is no joke) is 1 April 2015. Click here for further details and registration for this event, which has a strong cast of speakers and participants, including several certified Katfriends of high repute, and a very businesslike agenda. Incidentally, since the programme is in English, it looks as though the Workshop is in English too.  If only we English could cope so well with foreign languages ...

Tasteful, elegant and so cool ...

"Intellectual Property: Use it or Lose it", this year's CIPIL Spring Conference, takes place on Saturday 7 March 2015 in the lovely city of Cambridge, England.  In the chair is that indefatigable Katfriend and writer of authoritative judgments Sir Richard Arnold and theme of the day is the extent to which IP rights are granted in the expectation that the subject matter will be exploited, and what action can be taken if it is not. Again, there's a stellar cast of participants, an ample sufficiency of finely-sliced cucumber sandwiches or their equivalent, and 5.5 points-worth of CPD.  The closing date for registrations is Monday 2 March, after which time it will be simply too late. For fellow Kat Eleonora's comments on this event on the 1709 Blog, with a link to the programme and registration details, just click here.

While we're about it, here's a discreet mention of the Tenth Annual International Intellectual Property Lecture at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (funded from the Herchel Smith Bequest). This year's speaker is Professor Pamela Samuelson (UC Berkeley). The title is 'Functionality and Expression in Computer Programs: A Pragmatic Approach' and the date is Tuesday 10 March 2015, at 6 pm. The organisers are asking folk to gather there from 5.30 pm, to make sure that not everyone arrives at the last minute and to attend an optional seminar on how to pronounce "Berkeley". For an invitation, please contact Sophie Eastwood at sebe2@cam.ac.uk.