A thank-you from the IPKat

Time for Kats to party (available here)

About an hour ago the IPKat weblog received its three millionth visitor to the site. Well, it may not actually be three million visitors, since some folk may have been back more than once, but there have certainly been three million visits since the Kat installed his little web page counter in June 2003.

This Kat, who has been with the blog since its inception, never imagined that it would gain so wide a readership after it began its life as an augmentation of University of London LLB and LLM reading materials.  From June 2003 until the end of the year the blog received just over 12,500 hits; now it usually exceeds that figure every week.  Over 5,600 email subscribers follow the blog too, as do nearly 2,800 RSS feeders and more than 2,400 on Twitter.  The weblog has posted what is now a searchable database of over 6,200 items: case reports, news items, opinion pieces, rants, book reviews, conference reports, competitions and, sadly, obituaries of some of the IP communities' best friends.

Most excitingly, the IPKat's life as a blogger has coincided with an efflorescence of intellectual property blogging across the world. He is proud to be part of a community of IP bloggers who help and respect one another and who work to explain, to demystify, to warn and to criticise for the sake of something that is larger than us all: the more efficient and just operation of an IP system which is not perfect, by people who are not perfect, in a world which is not perfect.

Humbled and awed by the vast degree of support and encouragement he and his colleagues have received, this Kat would like to offer his grateful thanks to all those people who have contributed to the growth and maturity of this weblog over the years. The list includes and is therefor not limited to the following: the current squad of bloggies; those who have played their part as IPKat writers and are now no longer with the team -- though their writings remain with us still; guest writers whose thoughts we have been pleased to share with readers; suppliers of useful and interesting leads, who never despair even if we can't use them; providers of comments, whether directly or by email; furnishers of photos of cats; officials with international and national institutions; judges; lawyers in-house and in private practice; students; litigants; businesses big and small -- and of course our readers.

Thank you -- and may we all be spared to serve the IP community for many a long year to come!