Monday miscellany

Finding Stockholm wasn't so hard but, try as
she might, Gina couldn't locate that Brewery ...

Forthcoming events. Some readers don't take the trouble to check out the IPKat's Forthcoming Events page since they assume that, with so many of the Kats being based in England, it's only English events that are on the list.  This is not so!  The list contains plenty of non-UK events.  For example, C5's Pharma & Biotech Patent Litigation Forum (here) takes place in Amsterdam's Hotel Okura on 19 and 20 March. Less than a week later the Nordic IP Forum assembles in The Brewery, Stockholm, on 25 and 26 March 2015: details here. Later in the year the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) is holding an IP Mediation Open Day in Alicante on Monday 15 June 2015. If you are interested, you can find all the details here.  The first two of these events offer handsome registration fee discounts to IPKat readers; the third is free.

On the subject of forthcoming events, let's not forget the Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property monthly list of events for March, which you can peruse here.  If nothing else, this shows that the number of IP events coming up seems to be very much on the increase.

Better late than never. It seems that the Court of Justice of the European Union's Translation Unit has finally managed to catch up with itself. This Kat learns that the English language versions of Advocate General Bot’s Opinions in Cases C-146/13 Kingdom of Spain v European Parliament, Council of the European Union and C-147/13 Kingdom of Spain v Council of the European Union were finally made publicly available last Thursday. These Opinions, delivered on 18 November of last year, deal with such sensitive topics as the use of the enhanced cooperation mechanism for the establishment of a unitary patent system, the question of effective control of a non-EU institution, non-discrimination and judicial review. For a summary of the issues raised and the Advocate General's take on them, see this earlier Katpost here

Fashion event in Soho. Katfriend Tania Phipps-Rufus writes to tell this Kat that she is hosting an event at Condé Nast College of Fashion, 16–17 Greek Street, Soho. Perhaps unsurprisingly the subject is "Fashion, Law & Business", and there is a particular focus on intellectual property as it affects the fashion sector. The event will be on 18 March at 6.30 - 8.30pm. Tickets for the event are available here. There are Super Early Bird and presumably ordinary Early Bird reductions for early registrants but, since the very most it can cost you even if you miss all the deadlines is only £20, it sounds agreeably affordable.

Burk's Law. Not to be confused with Burke's Law,  this year's three LSE Leverhulme Public Lectures are being delivered by Professor Dan Burk over the next two weeks (between Friday 6 and Friday 13 March) at the London School of Economics.  The topics?  The Gene Patent Controversy [nothing to do with Burke's Law star Gene Barry, notes the IPKat], The Software Patent Puzzle and Patenting Information Technologies. These are public events and no tickets are required. Just turn up and look intelligent. Click here for details.

Around the weblogs. Always full of surprises, Mark Anderson's IP Draughts explains why, if you are looking to register a company name, you can register "OMG F**K :–) Limited" straight off but need permission before you can register "Sheffield University Patent Licensing Institute".  IP Finance hosts a request to participate in a short survey on patent ownership being run by Aistemos. On SOLO IP, Barbara Cookson points out that the OHIM Board of Appeal decision in Canal Plus, designed to prevent unused marks being used to oppose later registrations, does not yet seem to part of UK law.