A funny thing happened on the way to the Patent Forum ....

What was left of the Forum
after the pro-patent folk
finished arguing with
the generics manufacturers

Coming up soon is an exciting patent law event in which the IPKat has a paw -- he is one of the event's supporters, no less, and (as sharp-eyed readers of his Forthcoming Events page may already have spotted) this entitles IPKat readers to a thumping 20% discount on their registration fees.

The event in question is Managing Intellectual Property magazine's first-ever International Patent Forum.  When IPKat team member Jeremy first set up MIP and before he sold the title to Euromoney he envisaged the magazine as promoting its own conferences in order to educate and stimulate readers, to bring them together as a community, to enhance awareness of issues that required  further analysis and as means of building on the synergies of the printed media and carefully-managed events.  He's delighted to see that, despite the impact of the social media -- or because of it -- this objective is coming into fruition with the inauguration of this Forum.

The venue chosen for the Forum, the elegantly furbished Renaissance London Chancery Court Hotel, is in London's High Holborn -- exactly over the road from his cosy little office at Olswang LLP, so the Kat plans to make some strategic incursions from time to time in search of his quarry [the hotel used to be the Pearl Assurance building and you can usually buy a punnet of blueberries from the cheery chappie who runs the street stall just outside it].

The panel of speakers is stellar, with representatives from the main international institutions, leading patent owners and members of the judiciary and the patent professions.  From the Kat's point of view the speakers are literally within his grasp.  In his opinion most of the speakers deserve to be tied to their chairs for a while, some so that they can't escape and have to talk; others so they can't escape and will therefore have to listen.  They know who I mean.

For the record, the cast of speakers includes one of Europe's most prominent and outspoken patent judges, Lord Justice Jacob, the AIPLA's Q. Todd Dickinson and USPTO head David Kappos, James Pooley from WIPO and the IPKat's old friend Jacques Gevers (ValiPat).

You can check out the full programme and get your IPKat readers' 20% discount here.