Wednesday whimsies

Forthcoming events. Composing this week's Wednesday Whimsies from the comfort of his San Diego hotel room while attending the INTA Meeting along with 9,855 of his closest friends, this Kat's thoughts inevitably wander in the direction of events. Which will be the next for him to attend? Will it be educational? Will it be fun? These imponderables may not be susceptible of an easy answer, but a quick visit to this weblog's Forthcoming Events page may help clarify those wandering thoughts. There's also the Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property's list of May 2015 events, which you can browse through here.

Rosati on Reform.  One thing you might fancy attending is the latest copyright-flavoured brainchild of fellow Kat Eleonora, wearing her e-LAWnora hat.  It's "The Age of EU Copyright Reform?", the latest in her series of highly popular bespoke copyright briefings. The date is Tuesday 26 May, the city is London and the time is ripe for your involvement. For a beautifully crafted and thoroughly sourced post on the 1709 Blog in which Eleonora elaborates, click here. If all you want is further details plus registration, just click here. Incidentally, this April McGill University's Centre for Intellectual Property Policy gave Eleonora Twitter Star status. Well done, Eleonora!

Fascinated by finance?  If so, you can indulge your urges and gratify your desires by attending IP Finance 2015 next Thursday, 14 May. There's a strong cast of speakers at the New York Palace, New York City, and the mouthwatering prospect of a reduction of more than US$ 200 in the registration fee if you are a reader of the IP Finance weblog. To find out more, read the IP Finance blog's summary here, with links to further details and registration.

"I know I’m getting old and past it", says Katfriend, trade mark attorney and MARQUES stalwart David Goldring (Oakleigh), "but is a mark consisting of two @ signs in plain type (in other words the mark @@) capable of distinguishing any goods or services or is it devoid of distinctive character?" Explains David, "In UK Trade Marks Journal No 2015/018 dated 01 May 2015, the following mark appears:

UK00003100146 19 March 2015 (35,39)

@@

Class 35

Business management of computerised delivery information; business management of the computerised collection, registration and/or provision of information relating to location for delivery of packages and/or goods and/or services; business management of the provision of computerized location information for delivery of packages and/or goods and/or services.

Class 39

Provision of computerised navigation and information services relating to location and/or direction and/or delivery information; provision of computerised collation, registration and delivery services for information which enables accurate determination of locations or directions, for delivery of goods and/or services; delivery of goods and/or services using such collated and registered information ...

"Maybe I could register two semi colons ( ;; ) or two commas ( ,, ) as a trade mark -- or two full stops (  .. ) ?" he asks, though this Kat is confident that David, who is neither old nor past it since he is the Kat's junior by a number of human years, knows the answers to all these questions.  

To boldly go ... to new heights. Here's some news from the IPKat's friends at the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) have launched a manifesto, "An Economy of Ideas".  It's accompanied by a short video, here, on the same theme.  This Kat thinks it's all pretty plausible stuff. Merpel's a bit puzzled about the bit in the video about virtuous circles creating innovation "to drive the UK economy forward to new heights". Shouldn't that be "upward" if you want to reach new heights, she asks.  More news from CIPA is that it has pretty well instantly responded to yesterday's ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Cases C-146 and C-147/13 [breaking news and short-form summary here; analytical Katposts here and here] by issuing the following statement:

CIPA welcomes the ruling ... to dismiss actions by Spain challenging the legality of the proposed Unitary Patent system. Catriona Hammer, President of CIPA, said:

“This decision is an important step forward in the journey towards the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court. CIPA is committed to working with legislators to make the new system as good as possible.”

The court’s decisions effectively remove the final legal obstacle to the full implementation of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and introduction of the Unitary Patent, providing a majority of the 25 Member States that are signatories to the UPC Agreement now move to ratify. Under the Agreement, these 13 ratifications must include France, Germany and the UK (France has already ratified). 

CIPA now looks forward to a sensible fee structure being pursued and published. 

The UPC Preparatory Committee discussed the court fee structure and a proposed consultation document, which it has said will be launched in “Spring 2015”, at meeting on 27 February 2015. The issue was also expected to be discussed by the committee this week. CIPA hopes that this consultation will now be launched as soon as possible.

The IPKat marvels at the speed at which CIPA has welcomed the two rulings.  Merpel's again a little puzzled since, whenever she has a chance to chat to her patent attorney friends, they don't seem to be nearly as welcoming of these decisions as much as their Institute is.