Wednesday whimsies

Following yesterday's post, "Anti-scam: a call for cooperation" (here), the IPKat is delighted to report that  the MARQUES Class 46 initiative is gaining momentum.  Anti-scam guidance from 14 websites is now available from Class 46 here.  Says the IPKat, let's get this information promulgated as quickly as possible, to save the small, the poor and the innocent from wasting their precious cash on unproductive and/or fraudulent demands.  Merpel's not so pleased.  There are around 200 countries floating around, and most of them don't seem to have any anti-scam sites at all.  Also, the supply of contact details and easily searchable data is very, very patchy: there's a vast amount still to be done.  STOP PRESS: since updating the Class 46 guide, information concerning another useful site -- Mark-Echt's Spookfacturen -  which will be added to the guide when it's next updated.

The art of the blog.  The IPKat's not much of a linguist, as is widely known, but with the aid of a well-known search engine's translation facilities he thinks there's plenty food for thought at the Markenserviceblog, directed by Prehm & Klare (Rechtsanwälte) and boasting an archive that goes all the way back to December 2006. "Automatic reversion clauses in copyright assignments: do they work?", by IP transactional sage Mark Anderson, is on offer from the jiplp weblog here.  The latest PCC Page on PatLit gives a flavour of what it's actually like to be doing the legwork around the lovely buildings in London's Park Crescent in an attempt to launch your cut-price IP litigation before the Patents County Court for England and Wales. And on the subject of patents, there's some valuable advice on how to refer to a patent in a court order or in pleadings.


The blog of the art.  Check out Art & Artifice, the art-and-law blog which is not quite two months old and is already maturing into a nice little source for legal and current information about that sweet space in which art meets law.  Latest post is news of Maria Mercedes Frabboni's "Who owns the orphans?" project -- and a tasty reception too!

On 12 May, as the darling buds dance o'er London's leafy boughs, IPKat team member Jeremy will be chairing "When Intellectual Property Meets Competition Law: Protecting Rights Without Protectionism".  This one-day CLT conference programme promises to do its best to make competition law (i) intelligible and (ii) non-intimidating to our IP brethren.  The programme brochure is here.  See you there?

From darling buds to budding athletes. The London Marathon fundraising season is in full  bloom, and the IPKat's good friend Anna Carboni -- solicitor, scholar, Appointed Person, JIPLP editorial board person and generally lovely person -- is making her once-every-ten-years sortie into the world of self-mortification known as athletics. Together with her husband Marius she is raising money for Hospice in the Weald,  Anna and Marius's fundraising page is here.  Please give!