Friday Fantasies

The AmeriKat getting her winter coat
on 

Brrr, it's cold in here...If you, like the AmeriKat, are freezing your paws off, here is a warming drink of the latest IP news and events. 

AIPPI Rapid Reaction on Thaler in the Supreme Court next Thursday

Next Thursday, 18 January, AIPPI UK is hosting their first event of 2024 and it's a good one - and online!  At the close of 2023, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom handed down its eagerly awaited and widely publicized judgment in Thaler v Comptroller-General confirming that a patent application may not name an AI machine as an inventor. AIPPI UK is privileged to welcome Dr Stuart Baran (3 New Square) and Professor Ryan Abbott (University of Surrey) to speak in AIPPI's first rapid reaction (virtual) event of 2024. Dr Baran is the barrister who represented the UKIPO in the case appealed by Dr Stephen Thaler, creator of AI machine, Dabus. Professor Ryan Abbott represented Dr Thaler, and has advocated widely for patents on AI-generated inventions.

Attendance is free for members and new applicants for membership. New membership applications are welcome – please see website www.aippi.org.uk or contact secretary@aippi.org.uk for further details (membership options are: Junior £46 (aged under 30); Junior £89 (aged under 36); Corporate: £90 (industry only); and Individual: £180).  
The charge for non-members is £60.00, payable online at the time of registration. The AmeriKat of course declares her interest as a long standing member of AIPPI, so she would of course say that membership and attendance is well worth your while.  

There are a limited number of free tickets available for students in full-time education, on a first come, first served basis (proof of full time student status must be sent to secretary@aippi.org.uk before the date of the event).

UCL IBIL tackles the impact of REUL on IP on 22 January

On 22 January from 6-7:30PM, UCL's Institute of Brand and Innovation Law will be tackling the uncoupling of EU IP law (or lack of uncoupling) in the UK following the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 with Lord Justice Arnold in the chair.  Here is the blurb and you can register here:

"The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (REULA) received Royal Assent in June 2023 and will enter into force on 1 January 2024. While original plans for a post-Brexit ‘bonfire of EU laws’ were abandoned, the new Act still abolishes certain now-familiar principles of EU law and introduces provisions intended to make it easier for UK courts to depart from retained EU case law (now re-branded as ‘assimilated law’). While many thousands of pieces of legislation have been saved from the end of year bonfire, the Government clearly sees REULA as the catalyst for future regulatory departure from EU laws.

This conscious uncoupling of UK and EU laws introduces uncertainty in a number of areas, including in relation to intellectual property law, which for so long have been the focus of EU harmonising efforts. Of course, with legislative uncertainty comes the risk of increased litigation, but also, perhaps, offers the UK courts and legislature a welcome opportunity to ditch aspects which just weren’t working for the UK’s IP stakeholders.

In this event, our distinguished panel will summarise the key provisions in REULA, highlight its potential implications for the main IP rights, and review the main opportunities for law reform in this area."

The Speakers

Dr Ruth Fox, Director of the Hansard Society
Professor Phillip Johnson, University of Cardiff, Barrister, Appointed Person
Nina O’Sullivan, Mishcon de Reya LLP
His Honour Judge James Tindal, Specialist Civil Circuit Judge, Birmingham CJC

Chair: The Rt Hon. Sir Richard Arnold, Lord Justice of Appeal

Fees:  Fees are charged for this event from £8 - £35.   Free of charge for UCL students, members of the judiciary and full time academics."

Will your bike soon make decisions for itself?  

Merpel has noticed a trend, particularly amongst London patent lawyers, to take up cycling as their sole means of scooting around to various IP events and meetings.  It is not an unusual sight to see a fully Lycra-clad patent litigation partner or barrister circulating at an IP seminar.  So for those beloved folks, this article in Cycling Weekly will really hit the spot.   

A patent by Japanese company, Shimano - US 11,866,114 - that was published this week will (for some) protect the ultimate patent lawyer's accessory in that it combines patent law, cycling and machine learning to make decisions on suspension and dropper posts (where you drop the height of your saddle to secure more grip).  

Over to the patent:

"Out of the multiple components of a human-powered vehicle, a seat post and a suspension having a telescopic mechanism are associated with vibrations that have great influence on the riding comfort of the human-powered vehicle. The riding comfort of the human-powered vehicle can be improved and riding can be made to be more efficient requiring less power through the use of a seat post and suspension to suppress vibrations, and adjusting a spring coefficient thereof to an appropriate value. Proper skill is required for the rider to appropriately control the seat post and the suspension during riding....

It is an object of the present invention to provide a component control device for optimally performing automatic control of a component having a telescopic mechanism, a method of creating a learning model, a learning model, and a computer-readable storage medium."

The distinction over the prior art - which already includes automatic controls for suspension and dropper seats - is that the machine learning and feedback loop provided by the rider can then facilitate the immediate recognition of riding conditions and adjust automatically.  However, it will probably be some time before this bike will be delivering patent lawyers to the next season's IP events.