The IPKat - IP news, views and mews

Last week the AmeriKat was on her way back from the City donning her apropos snazzy (pin)stripes , when instead of taking the normal route home she decided to take an entirely different route. Prowling through the deserted streets of the City and finally meandering down to Embankment,...

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Yet another installment in the ongoing saga of and secrecy surrounding the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) negotiations (see the IPKat's ACTA posts here). The European Parliament has now published a press release in which it demands that the Commission and the Council should grant public and parliamentary access to...

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Thank you again, say the IPKat, Merpel and the rest of the crew, for your continued support of this weblog. According to our web counter, we have oh-so-nearly welcomed today our two millionth visitor since the blog was launched in June 2003 (we should hit that magic figure tomorrow,...

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It is the maiden voyage on these blog pages for this new Kat. My view of maiden voyages was shaped by the scene in the movie Titanic, when the skipper of the doomed ship is about to embark on the route to doom, smiling smugly while sipping (presumably English) tea....

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The IPKat thanks lots of enthusiastic readers, of whom New York stalwart Miri Frankel was the first, for sending him links to all the news items concerning the High Court for England and Wales victory of British rock group Pink Floyd over recording company EMI. The group, famed for...

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Last week the IPKat, intrigued by a reference for a ruling for a preliminary ruling of the European Court of Justice in a case he knew nothing about, Case C-4/10 Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac v Oy Gust. Ranin (see earlier post here), asked readers if they could furnish him...

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As regular readers will by now surely know, World Intellectual Property Day is Monday, 26 April. To celebrate it, the IPKat is holding a special event -- a Cheese and Wine Celebrity Poetry Reception. This is a drop-in event which takes place between 5pm and 7pm in the big...

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The IPKat is all agog with the breaking news that the UK and US governments have agreed today to develop an action plan for reducing patent processing backlogs in each country's patent office. Right: it's time to party, as Patent Kats in the UK, USA and Japan prepare to solve their...

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Kats are not biologically equipped to play any wind instruments, but this one feels mildly tempted to try blowing its own trumpet just a little. Yesterday this weblog secured its 4,000th email subscriber. The Kats are indebted to all their subscribers, and not just the most recent ones, for...

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Intellectual Property in Government Contracts: Protecting and Enforcing IP at the State and Federal Level, is an intriguing book by the trilogy of James G McEwen, David S Bloch and Richard M Gray. The first two named authors are in private practice, while the third has the grand title of...

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It's available in various official European Union languages, including Latvian, but not in English. Still, with the help of his friends, the IPKat has been able to piece together the deeper inner meaning of Advocate General Mengozzi's Opinion in Case C-428/08 Monsanto Technology LLC v Cefetra BV and others, a...

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Brazil has outlined the details of its retaliation against the United States, following the latter's refusal to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling that it had wrongly subsidised its local cotton production, preventing Brazil from exporting its own cotton there. According to Reuters tonight, the estimated annual impact...

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"Legal Rights for Yorkshire Puddings" is the slightly misleading title of a news item spotted by the IPKat's friend Sang Nkhwazi (Mancunium IP), since the rights are actually being sought for those who believe themselves to be the persons exclusively entitled to describe their wares as Yorkshire Puddings. According to...

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A typical week for the AmeriKat usually includes several trademark occurrences, such as absentmindedly reading the Evening Standard, getting newspaper ink on one's paws, then wiping the ink all over one's face and nose leather. Or, sitting across from someone on the Tube who she is sure she knows...

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As ever, the onset of the fifth day of the standard Western working week marks triggers a frantic rush to check the IPKat's side bar for choice events. Good habits are the hallmarks of professional and commercial success -- and can there be any better habit to cultivate than...

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Thanks go to fellow blogger Hugo Cox for drawing the IPKat's attention to this note on the UK's IPO website concerning a reference to the European Court of Justice in Case C- 34/10 Oliver Brüstle v Greenpeace e.V. This case seeks a preliminary ruling on the following questions: "1....

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In case you were wondering what the "German language only" EPO press release of 3 March 2010 date is telling you concerning EP 1330552 ("marker assisted selection of bovine for improved milk production using diacylglycerol acyltransferase gene DGAT1" - a patent which claims processes for breeding cows that give more...

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An EPO post summarises the recent speech of current European Patent Office President, Alison Brimelow with the title "Keeping the patent system fit for purpose". A cynic might suggest that this begs the question as to whether the patent system was fit in the first place. The IPKat thinks...

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The IPKat just couldn't resist this one. Abe Sauer, writing in BrandChannel ("Tag Heuer Stays With Tiger Woods In China"), reports that, while Gatorade has joined Accenture and AT&T in dropping golf maestro Tiger Woods as a spokesman because of his scandalous sex life, "high-end watchmaker Tag Heuer not...

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Are you attending the International Trademark Association (INTA) Annual Meeting in Boston this May? If so, you're welcome to attend the Pre-Annual Meeting Reception in London on Tuesday, 16 March. This event is hosted by London-based law firm Rouse from 6pm to 8pm in its Docklands office. It gives first-timers...

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Speaking today at the Business for New Europe lunch, Michel Barnier (the Member of the European Commission responsible for Internal Market and Services, shown here in a photo that calls out for a really wicked caption) had this to say about intellectual property: "Europe: an attractive place to do businessI...

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One of the IPKat's anonymice, having declined to submit an Intellectual Property Anthem by way of an entry for the current competition, has instead sent him (with no apologies to the inspirational and much-imitated Monty Python sketch concerning the Australian philosophers) an Australian Patent Attorneys sketch. Right: how different, how...

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The IPKat has just been wondering what facts lie behind Case C-4/10, Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac v Oy Gust. Ranin, a reference of a question from the Korkein hallinto-oikeus (Finland) to the Court of Justice of the European Union lodged on 5 January 2010 in the ruggedly handsome if...

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All the IPKat's friends are emailing him to tell him that Keisha Buchanan is to commence legal proceedings against the girl group she founded, the Sugababes, seeking to prevent the current line-up using the name. Sadly the report in The Mirror does not give full legal details of her...

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Dear weblog readers ..."At the Extraordinary AC meeting in Munich today, the member states elected Benoît Battistelli as our next President [i.e. President of the European Patent Office]. Mr Battistelli obtained the necessary qualified majority of three-quarters of the votes cast. Currently Mr Battistelli is Director General of the French...

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