Intellectual Property Law

Friday frighteners

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

Aurelia Schultz is not a name that may be familiar to readers of this blog, but she's the power behind a new intellectual property blog, Ip's What's Up, which the Kats will be keeping an eye on in the future. Good luck Aurelia!

The IPKat is being strongly encouraged to say something undiplomatic about the "falafel kerfuffle" (see The Guardian here, The Trademark Blog here). Essentially, the story goes that the Lebanese are claiming Geographical Indication status for the falafel, on the basis that it is a Lebanese dish that has been misappropriated by the Israelis. The IPKat is unimpressed. So far as he can see, the falafel emanated from Egypt, which has so far laid no claim to it.

Entries for the "Name the new World Intellectual Property Organization Building" competition were not as impressive as the IPKat had hoped. Only two were really worth publishing here. The winning entry came from the highly distinguished Graham Smith (Bird & Bird) who wrote: "THE WIPODIUM -- it doesn't work too well in French, for which it would have to be something like THE OMPLIDIUM. But that suggests, best of all, THE IMPLODIUM". Runner-up is the effervescent Aaron Wood (Wilson Gunn), who cheekily wrote: "The Tower of Idrisgard? Turns out to be somewhat shorter than it was supposed to be when the architects pitched for the job...". Both winners receive a complimentary one-year subscription to the World Intellectual Property Review (click here for details). The publishers have kindly offered to furnish inspection copies to any interested parties. If you'd like to receive one, email Nik Lipinski here.

Full post as published by IPKat on October 17, 2008 (boomark / email).