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Intellectual Property Law

: IPKat

Friday fantasies

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

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The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled.
"Why stay you there", his crew-mates cried,
"When danger lies ahead?"
"I cannot leave", the young man said,
"I won't desert my post!
I'm checking on the IPKat's site
Th'events I like the most.
The list upon the sidebar
Is full of gems galore --
Conf'rences and seminars
On thrice-bless'd IP law!"

Yesterday, in "A Press-ing Problem", the IPKat bemoaned the poor quality of the intellectual property media and press releases which he receives from so many people. If enough people were interested, said the Kat, he'd run a little course on how to write decent ones. So far, he has had a good response -- but half the people who have emailed him to ask to be put on his list are those who already prepare quite good ones, and not a single person from his "offenders list" has contacted him. That already speaks volumes for the comparison between those who take their media releases seriously and those who couldn't care less. If you're interested in participating in a "how to put together a decent press release" seminar, email here, with the subject line 'IP Press Release'.

US-based free patent information provider Priorsmart, which also tracks patent-related blogs and news, has started sending out a daily email listing all the US patent infringements, including free pdf complaints. For details of this service, email here. The IPKat has seen a couple of these listings and is a little embarrassed to confess how few of the litigants are known to him ...

Latest report on British IP crime. The UK's Intellectual Property Office has now published the IP Crime Group's annual report for 2009/10, which provides an overview of the current scale of IP crime and what is being done about it. Noting that it remains difficult to establish the likely impact of IP crime accurately, not least since such activities tend to take place outside the formal economy, the report records an increase in the coordination of enforcement activities and information between rights-holders, the government and enforcement agencies. The result is a greater level of public awareness, more convictions, and more infringers forced to regurgitate their ill-gotten gains under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. IP Minister Baroness Wilcox is getting ready to deal with the real villains, though:

"The real key to beating this threat is the public. People must refuse to buy anything they suspect is not genuine and report the seller to their trading standards or police.".

The report is 64 pages long and you can read it here. IPO press release here.

Around the journals. The latest issue of JIPITEC, the a new Online Journal for current issues of intellectual property, information technology and E-commerce law, is now available: check it out! The August 2010 issue of Sweet & Maxwell's monthly European Intellectual Property Review (EIPR) is out too, with a review by the China Patent Office's Yong-Kang Yang of the term "national treatment" in Art.2(1) of the Paris Convention and Patricia Akester's look at the realities of striking a balance between copyright protection and UNESCO's baby -- access to knowledge, information and culture. Always ahead of its cover date, the August-September World Trademark Review (contents here) has a distinctively Chinese flavour to it, but there's plenty more besides, including an international design and trade dress survey. Oh, I nearly forgot -- the July issue of Intellectual Property Magazine (here) has lots of short, attractively illustrated pieces across the range of IP.

Around the blogs. Miri Frankel, who already contributes to the IP Finance weblog, is joining the 1709 Blog team too, where she will offer some welcome US perspectives. Excess Copyright speculates on the deeper meaning and potential for protection of the term "English Muffin"; the IPKat chooses not to delve too far, since Wikipedia associates muffins with crumpets and both have, er, overtones. Frank Zappa fans will recall the prime significance of this delicacy, recorded not merely in the name of one of his children but in Muffin Man, the lyrics of which contain the immortal stanza "Girl, you thought he was a man/But he was a muffin".

Pharma linkage. A friend of the IPKat works in the area of pharmaceutical linkage regulations which tie drug approval to drug patenting. He works in Canada, where the relevant domestic regime, in force since 1993, is was modelled after the US Hatch-Waxman regime, and he is putting together an application for a grant to study linkage regimes globally. He asks: