Wednesday whimsies

Don't gnash your teeth --
join IPSoc today!

Events in the offing.  The IPKat is getting increasingly excited at the seminar on Initial Interest Confusion on 7 September (details here), now that registrations have passed the 30 mark.  but that's nothing compared to Professor Lionel Bently's talk, "Leading UK and ECJ Judgments: Key Developments in Trade Mark Law (including Interflora v M&S)" next week for IPSoc, for which over 100 young, gifted and charming members of the IP professions have already signed up: some spaces are still available, rumour has it, so you too can be young, gifted and charming by association if you join them.

Media mogul and media mog. Possibly on account of the live broadcast of the grilling of media mogul Rupert Murdoch yesterday afternoon, this weblog received an unusually small number of visits, comments and general bits and pieces from its normally dedicated readership. Accordingly not everyone might have seen Save Our Cat! -- a post relating not to the media mogul but to our own media mog, in search of a new professional challenge.  Gratifyingly, while yesterday's responses were small in number, they were of excellent quality and are being up, but it's still not too late to express your interest.

A likely subscriber ...?

Here's a new set of law reports, the Information Law Reports, which is published by Justis [ah, says Merpel, this must be Justice for People Who Can't Spell] in collaboration with 11KBW (a set of rebranded barristers formerly known as 11 King's Bench Walk and boasting quite an interest in Information Law). Says the IPKat's old friend John Hull (Memery Crystal), the reports will feature cases on data privacy, the Freedom of Information Act "and so on" [phone hacking?, wonders Merpel]. You can get all the relevant details from Justis here.  Don't confuse these with the Information Technology Law Reports, published by Lawtext, advises the IPKat.

From Quidditch to Quids In:
Potter prevails as detractors
fail to make payment into court

Around the blogs. Thanks go to Chris Torrero (again!) for drawing the Kats' attention to an excellent summary on Patent Docs which was posted under the descriptively helpful title "USPTO Revises Requirements for Patent Prosecution Highway Programs".  The Art & Artifice limerick competition, for which first prize is free entry to this year's Handbags at Dawn IP and fashion conference, has now received some hilarious entries, and some slightly dubious rhymes for "France".  There are only a few more days to the close of The SPC Blog's "win a Bucknell book" competition [quick note to putative entrants: you don't have to nominate Brazil if you don't want to]. There's an enchanting little piece about burned DVDs being given away with every purchase of a $5 jewel case here on the 1709 Blog. and if that's not exciting enough, the same blog comes with news of the obituary of Willie the Wizard v Harry Potter and a guest post on the cause celebre in the making, the prosecution of Aaron Swartz. Finally, did you know about the PROSUR pilot project in Latin America? If not, take a quick look at IP Tango here.

Into battle ...!

This Kat congratulates ACID (Anti Copying in Design) CEO Dids Macdonald on her appointment as Vice Chair of the Alliance Against IP Theft. Dids replaces the outgoing Vice-Chair, Anti Counterfeiting Group Director General Ruth Orchard. says Dids:

"There has never been a more important time, in The Alliance's impressive history, to play a key role in its future and particularly now that its resonance is being heard loudly and clearly across the entire IP landscape [But that's the easy bit, frets the IPKat: we have to get the message beyond the IP landscape and make sure it stays there!]. I look forward to representing the issues and interests of all the Alliance's members, who are varied and diverse, but unified in the recognition of IP as a positive force for the UK's growth strategy. ... Latest figures confirm that UK businesses as a whole invest £65 billion in IP creation of which £23 billion is spent specifically on design. The tide cannot change too soon to see tangible evidence from Government that the creative and knowledge economies will provide that vital conduit providing growth and employment".

Good luck Dids, and thanks for all your hard work Ruth, says this Kat, we need more fighters like you. Putting aside for a minute the relevant IP and ethical issues, it would be great if we could clone you both ...