Friday fantasies

Forthcoming events. The IPKat and Merpel have been busily adding events to the list of attractions on offer over the next few months.  Do please remember to check them out! See you there?

On the subject of forthcoming events, the 10th Anniversary Conference on 26 November that marks a decade of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) as well as IPKat blogmeister Jeremy's retirement now has 217 registrants -- so you'd better hurry if you are thinking of attending.  The event, generously hosted in the London office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, is free, and should be lots of fun.  Programme details and registration via Eventbrite can be found here.

Still on the subject of forthcoming events, registrations are also coming in for this year's IP Publishers and Editors Lunch, kindly hosted by law firm Veale Wasbrough Vizards in its London office on 25 November.  If you have been before and want to repeat the experience, if you've never been before and would like to sample it, or if you aren't sure whether you are eligible to sample it at all, you will find all the relevant details here.

Dreaming of Louboutin ...?

And while we're at it, one further forthcoming event is this year's nearly-annual conference on Intellectual Property in the Fashion Industry, coming up in Central London on 22 October.  Run by CLT, it's definitely one of the more fun events of the year, combining serious legal perspectives with some very lively questions, answers and debating points from IPKat blogmeister Jeremy in the chair.  You can check out the details of this year's programme here. He's not the only Kat on the programme, though, or even the only blogger.  Katonomist Nicola Searle is speaking as well as Art & Artifice blogger Rosie Burbidge. There is also a chance to meet Judge Melissa Clarke, who is one of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court's judges.  Do join us!


Academic opportunity 1. One of this Kat's oldest friends has contacted him to ask:

Is there a PhD completer, a recent graduate or even a practitioner who is keen to get a foot in the door of IP teaching, and who is able to step in and assist at extremely short notice? In its 4th year of running, numbers for the Intellectual Property Management module at City University, Cass Business School, for 2nd year BSc business and management students have shot up from around 40 to 72 for this year [great news, and no doubt music in the ears of fellow Kat Neil, who has long bemoaned the lack of time, space and appreciation given to IP by so-called Business  Schools]. 

Management has agreed to fund a third tutorial group (groups attend tutorials 1 hour every other week over 11 weeks).   I'd welcome some assistance with tutorials, and there would also be an opportunity for paid marking of coursework and exam papers. If you can think of anyone who has the necessary knowledge, attitude,aptitude and time to fit the bill, an urgent message would be most appreciated.

If any reader thinks that he or she might be the right person, can that person please email the IPKat at theipkat@gmail.com with the subject line CassIP? All expressions of interest will be forwarded to this Kat's friend (this Kat has no further details, so don't even ask ...).

An elaborate initiation ritual for IP support tutors?
No, just a sample of the famous Edinburgh tattoo

Academic opportunity 2. The University of Edinburgh is seeking an IP support tutor for the academic year 2015/16 for one of the modules in its online distance learning IP LLM. The course in question is 'Intellectual Property: Industrial Property', which runs in semester two (January-March 2016: average temperature in January here; in March here). It's principally focused on patents and trade marks, plus sessions on confidentiality, passing off and IP/free movement of goods. The role of support tutor is to assist the course organiser and tutors in facilitating student online discussions during the course of the semester, updating course materials and marking/preparing feedback on student participation. The support tutor does not need to be based in Edinburgh, as the tutoring process can be conducted completely remotely. The position would be ideal for any PhD students or researchers who might be looking to develop their portfolio of teaching experience. Applicants with professional experience in the relevant fields are also welcome. The job advertisement is here.  The closing date is the end of October 2015. Course organiser Jane Cornwell will be happy to field questions and provide further information.

Off to Moldova? The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced this week that European patents will shortly cover Moldova too, thanks to an agreement between the EPO and the Moldovan government.  The agreement comes into force on 1 November 2015 and will bring to 42 the number of countries for which patent protection can be obtained simultaneously with a single European patent application. The IPKat welcomes this move.  Merpel, mindful of her recent blogpost on the much-discussed exile of the EPO's Boards of Appeal from Munich, wonders if this agreement is a prelude to the departure of those august personages to Moldova itself ...

Around the weblogs.  On IP Tango, guest blogger Magda Voltolini brings us up to speed on Brazil's current cogitations about pharma patent law reform;  Aistemos features a plea by its CEO Nigel Swycher on how important it is for even little companies to have an IP strategy. On the 1709 Blog, Ben Challis offers another CopyKat medley, of particular interest to those who can't tell their antiphons from their Elgars, while Andy Johnstone asks -- in the US context -- whether true copyright reform can ever be a practical option. Finally, from Art & Artifice come two posts in quick succession: one features a metaphorical assault on the long-dead French painter Renoir, by Liz Emerson; the other, from Marian Ang, recounts the first prosecution for war crimes of an Islamist militant accused of destroying historical buildings in Timbuktu.


Italy commits to unitary patent. Italy has now notified the European Commission that it wishes to participate in its enhanced cooperation regime. The Commission has adopted a decision -- 2015/1753 of 30 September -- confirming Italy's participation and applying the Regulations 1257/2012 (on the unitary patent) and 1260/2012 (on the unitary patent translation regime) to Italy. Italy is already a signatory to the Unified Patent Court Agreement.