IP Digest (ip4all.com)

Lord Chancellor’s Breakfast 2015

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:07:09 +0000

Who goes to the Lord Chancellor’s Breakfast?

I did not spot Michael Gove. The justices of the Supreme Court OK, then the High Court judges in partly red dress, the circuit judges in partly lavender. Then come some in black. I suppose some are recorders. Opinions are put forward in the crowd – for example, one man said ‘if they have the long wigs, they are judges, if not, they aren’t yet’. Or do not all judges buy the full-bottomed ones, or recorders not wear them? And who are those in long red robes? and are there mere barristers? Some of the people are what are known as wives.

At Stanley Ley’s site you can see the full-bottomed wig, the judge’s bench wig, and the barrister’s wig.

Joshua Rozenberg wrote that though 1,000 go to the service, only about half are invited to the breakfast. This explains the more plainly clad persons heading off to the right.

Who are these?

And these?

I think there must have been academics there in academic gowns, and also clerics.

IP Publishers' and Editors' Lunch 2015: at last, the details!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 18:09:00 +0000

Every year it is the pleasure of the IPKat to invite his friends, colleagues, informants and competitors in the intellectual property media sector to join him for a get-together at which matters of mutual interest are discussed in a friendly and informal atmosphere. This year is no exception, and it is the pleasure of longstanding Katfriend and intellectual property enthusiast Serena Tierney to offer us a congenial central London venue for this year's meeting.

The date of this year's meeting is Wednesday 25 November and the venue is the London office of law firm Veale Wasbrough Vizards in the historical setting of Barnards Inn, London. Registration starts at 12.15 pm for a 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm meeting. A thoroughly enjoyable buffet lunch will be served. Serena will be in the chair and this year's guest speaker, solicitor Peter Groves (CJ Jones Solicitors LLP). Peter has a long record of editorial and contributorial experience with both IP and non-IP titles, as well as being a blogger in his own right. IPKat blogmeister and JIPLP editor Jeremy Phillips will conclude the formal proceedings with a few words of his own.

The meeting is open to anyone who is an online or print media intellectual property editor, publisher, information provider, press officer or an IP blogger or event manager -- and also to anyone who is considering a career change that will bring him or her within one of these categories. If you are not sure if you should be there, email Jeremy who will discuss your eligibility to attend. If you have attended this event in the past, you will need little convincing of its importance and utility. If you haven't, it can provide you with a golden chance to speak to others who are doing similar work, or whose activity complements your own.

Apart from the usual niceties, those who attend will be asked what direction this group should take in future years. In particular, should its title and functions be amended in order to reflect the fact that online information exchange and interactive user-generated IP analysis has to a large extent replaced more traditional forms of IP publishing?

To register, just email Romany at events@vwv.co.uk. The meeting is free to attend.

Book launch — The Making of the TRIPS Agreement: Personal Insights from the Uruguay Round Negotiations

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:00:00 +0000

Public Forum debates trade facilitation and intellectual property

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:00:00 +0000

The ratification of the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement and the importance of legal security for businesses provided by the TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) Agreement were two important topics discussed at this year’s Public Forum.

20 years on, negotiators reflect on breakthrough talks on intellectual property and trade

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:00:00 +0000

Director-General Roberto Azevêdo launched a new publication entitled “The Making of the TRIPS Agreement: Personal Insights from the Uruguay Round Negotiations” on Day 2 of the Public Forum on 1 October 2015. He highlighted that the WTO’s TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) Agreement introduced substantive and comprehensive disciplines on IP rights into the multilateral trading system and that it has impacted deeply on national IP regimes around the world – with the most significant changes experienced in developing economies.

Thursday thingies

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 11:05:00 +0000

Amazing response: it's only a day since registration opened for the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) 10th Anniversary Conference (details here), and this Kat, who will be making his final appearance on an IP stage, is thrilled to tell you that the amazing number of 129 kind folk have already registered. If you plan to attend, don't delay -- and if you find that you can't attend after all, do let it be known so that your ~~food~~ ~~drink~~ place can be allocated to someone more ~~deserving~~ available.

Is the Kiwi logo
out of copyright?

Will you be on the wrong side of the world on 26 November, and therefore unable to attend the JIPLP 10th Anniversary Conference in London? If so, do bear in mind that, on 27 and 28 November, the Asian Pacific Copyright Association is holding its Inaugural Conference on ‘Copyright Law and Policy in the Asian Pacific’. The venue is Auckland, New Zealand (home of the kiwi, the only bird in the world with nostrils at the end of its beak). The conference website and call for papers are here. This means that, if you are from Europe, Africa or the USA you have a chance to air your views before a fresh audience of copyright enthusiasts who might not yet have heard them ...

... or indeed any name

Reminder: if you can't use your name, use a pseudonym. The IPKat and Merpel have occasionally been a little more merciful than perhaps they might be, allowing some interesting comments by readers to percolate on to their blog even though their authors have not given a real or false name but have simply left themselves as "Anonymous". For the sake of other readers and potential commentators, please give a clue as to which person or Anonymous you are!

Language matters. This Kat, and probably all the other Kats that there have ever been, receives lots of information -- often in the form of promotional newsletters and circulars -- from law firms across the world concerning developments in their jurisdictions. Some are of little interest to most readers of this weblog, such as changes in official filing fees, while others are of considerable significance, such as major legal decisions or, as sometimes happens, proposed legislation that either improves on or is in breach of the norms of our favourite intellectual property treaties and conventions. We can't use all of this material and, to be quite honest, we can't always understand it since it may have been translated into English by machine or composed by someone whose command of English is not quite up to the task. While full of admiration for anyone who can work in a foreign language, this Kat suggests in a friendly manner which, he hopes, will not be taken amiss, that it really is a good idea to get someone who is a native English speaker to take a quick look over the text before it goes out, in order to identify and eradicate anything that can't be properly understood. Merpel adds: this applies to any foreign language, and not just English.

Merpel has let it be known that she is somewhat displeased with the news that has been trickling in her direction from the European Patent Office (EPO), and the veritable cascade of correspondence that has been reaching her from various anxious and troubled souls who work there. She will therefore shortly be returning to the subject of the EPO and its governance.

Around the weblogs. A vigorous tussle between the applicant to register LEXDELL as a Community trade mark for all sorts of goods and services and the owner of the well known DELL trade mark is recorded in Katfriend Laetitia Lagarde's Class 46 post here (incidentally, both parties purport to have an interest in clothing and headgear in Class 25). IP Tango's redoubtable Patricia Covarrubia explains the controversy over the Guti mark in Peru and the whys and wherefores of trade marks for condoms [a definite case of quis custoidiet ipsos custodes, quips Merpel]. IP Draughts' Mark Anderson offers a view of contract negotiating techniques as they appear in the works of William Shakespeare, while Aistemos takes a look at automotive patents and the continued shift of power from the car makers to their suppliers [somewhat following the IPKat's good example, Aistemos offers a handy round-up of the previous month's blogposts. This Kat hopes other active blogs will do the same as a matter of course].

TTAB Posts October 2015 Hearing Schedule

noreply@blogger.com (John L. Welch) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 10:21:00 +0000

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has scheduled five (V) oral hearings for the month of October, as listed below. The first four hearings will be held in the East Wing of the Madison Building, in Alexandria, Virginia. The fifth will be held "off-site" (at the AIPLA annual meeting in Washington, D.C.) The hearing schedule and other details regarding attendance may be found at the TTAB website (lower right-hand corner). Briefs and other papers for these cases may be found at TTABVUE via the links provided.

October 7, 2015 - 2 PM: In re Apple, Inc., Serial No. 77078496 [refusal to register the mark IPHONE for various services in International Classes 41 (providing online information and entertainment) and 42 (computer consulting services) on the ground that the specimens of use do not show the mark in use with the recited services].

October 13, 2015 - 11 AM: In re Caliburger, Serial No. 85810919 [Alternative refusals of CALIBURGER for restaurant services, on the grounds that the mark is of primarily geographically descriptive under Section 2(e)(2) of the Trademark Act, or merely descriptive under Section 2(e)(1)].

October 21, 2015 - 2 PM: In re Neato Robotics, Inc. , Serial No. 85751529 et al. [Mere descriptiveness refusal of BOTVAC, and requirement of disclaimer of BOTVAC in the mark NEATO BOTVAC for, inter alia, robotic vacuum cleaners and parts therefor].

October 22, 2015 - 11 AM: In re PACCAR, Inc., Serial No.85769536 [Section 2(e)(4) refusal to register KENWORTH for transmission fluids, motor vehicle lubricants, and all-purpose lubricants, on the ground that the mark is primarily merely a surname].

October 22, 2015 - 2PM: Balance Bar Company v. GFA Brands, Inc., Opposition Nos. 912142477 et al. [Opposition to registration of EARTH BALANCE and SMART BALANCE for various food items, including "nut and seed-based snack bars" and "meal replacement bars," on the ground of likelihood of confusion with the registered marks BALANCE and BALANCE BAR, and various BALANCE-formative marks, for snack bars].

Read comments and post your commenthere.

TTABlog note: Any predictions? See any WYHA?s here?

Text Copyright John L. Welch 2015.

The IPKat and his friends: the latest round-up of our IP weblog news

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 23:01:00 +0000

Once every three months or thereabouts, the IPKat and Merpel post an update of the goings-on both on this weblog and on other IP-flavoured blogs to which members of the IPKat's blog team contribute. This is the last such update to be authored by blogmeister Jeremy, who will have retired before the next one is due: what the blog team propose to do with it is in their hands, not his.

Kat-stats

Over the past few weeks, the stream of visitors to this weblog has continued to grow. Since June 2003 we've now received around 15.7 million page views. Nearly 9,700 individual blogposts are online and can be searched via the blog's search box at the top left hand corner of its home page. This year looks like being our busiest ever. So far, over 1.18 million visits have been made to us, around twice the volume of readers at this time last year. In March of this year alone, the IPKat welcomed 212,040 site visitors -- the highest monthly figure ever recorded.

The number of readers receiving Katposts by email is, at the time of writing, 12,146, and this blog is pursued by over 11,700 followers on Twitter at @Ipkat. The most frequently-visited blogpost remains Catherine Lee's June 2011 item, "Goodbye Cathy: Hello Kitty and Miffy settle copycat case", here, which has been visited more than 239,000 times.

The blog operates a moderated comments facility and invites readers to post comments that are relevant, responsible and neither obscene nor insulting. At present the number of readers' comments posted to this weblog stands at over 26,700 -- and we give a big "thank you" to those who have taken the time and trouble to share their thoughts and information with us and with our readers.

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The Kat's blog friends. Every few months this weblog lists, in no particular order, a number of IP -flavoured weblogs with which members of the IPKat's blogging team are associated. If you've not yet come across them -- and many of our more recent readers probably have not -- we hope that you will find some merit in them. For the avoidance of doubt, this list only relates to IP blogs to which Kat team members contribute: it is not intended as an exhaustive list of intellectual property blogs, or of blogs that have received our personal blessing. That's why there are plenty of IP blogs that are not listed, even though we know about them, like them and often read them!

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Class 46, founded by friends of European trade mark organisation MARQUES and driven by a big team of international contributors, delivers trade mark and brand-related news and developments from across Europe (www.marques.org/class46/). As of today, this blog has no fewer than 4,641 email subscribers and a searchable database of well over 4,100 items -- mainly relating to European case law and office practice but with coverage of plenty of other themes too, including plain packaging of tobacco products and the latest WIPO and OHIM initiatives for assisting users of the international and Community trade mark systems. Kats Jeremy and Birgit both contribute to this blog, as do former guest Kat Laetitia Lagarde and current Kat Mark Schweizer.

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Class 99, founded by patent and trade mark attorney David Musker, is dedicated to design law and practice in the UK, in Europe and beyond (http://www.marques.org/class99/default.asp). This weblog is now part of the MARQUES social media family along with Class 46. It has 1,956 email subscribers and a searchable database of over 660 items. New blog team contributors are earnestly sought from among the ranks of those who are either MARQUES members or work for a company or firm that belongs to MARQUES.

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Incidentally, Class 46 and Class 99 are just one small but significant part of MARQUES's social media presence. Posts on both blogs are usually recorded on MARQUES's Twitter account at https://twitter.com/MarquesIP and all sorts of items concerning trade marks, brands and designs are likely to end up on MARQUES's Facebook page, which you can access at facebook.com/marques.ip. MARQUES also has a very busy and carefully moderated LinkedIn discussion group, with well over 3,700 members.

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The 1709 Blog, which caters for the copyright enthusiast and seeks to cover all aspects of copyright law and practice in all its rich and varied glory (the1709blog.blogspot.com/). As of today, this blog has 2,520 email subscribers and a searchable database of nearly 2,200 items. It has a large and international team of contributors: Glastonbury Festival's Ben Challis, IPKat bloggers Eleonora and Jeremy and recent guest Kat Marie-Andrée Weiss, John Enser (Olswang) and our man in Paris, Asim Singh. You can follow this blog on Twitter, here.

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The SPC Blog is a handy information source for anyone who is involved in the tiny but controversial and highly lucrative world of supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) for pharmaceutical and plant protection patents, as well as other forms of patent term extension (thespcblog.blogspot.com/). As of today, this blog has 2,083 email subscribers, many of whom have enriched the content of this weblog with their comments and through the provision of information concerning SPCs. This blog contains over 610 items, including English translations of some European national decisions that are not available elsewhere. Incidentally, The SPC Blog organises an annual seminar, which is free to all comers and provides a great opportunity for pharma patent-owning companies, generics, private practitioners and patent office functionaries to get together and compare notes.

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PatLit tackles patent dispute resolution topics -- principally litigation -- not just from the UK but from wherever interesting news and comments emerge. As of today this blog, whose contributors include Michael Thesen, and David Berry, has 1,510 email subscribers and a searchable database of just over 1,000 items.

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IP Finance, which was launched in January 2008 in response to the UNCITRAL initiative on security interests in intangibles, touches that delicate interface between intellectual property and the world of finance, addressing securitisation, valuation, royalty rates, assessment of damages and the evolution of new business plans (http://ipfinance.blogspot.com/). As of today, this blog has 1,576 email subscribers and a searchable database of a little over 1,300 items. Kats Neil and Jeremy write for this blog, which is also garnished with content from US academic Mike Mireles and (F)RAND expert Keith Mallinson (WiseHarbor).

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jiplp is the blog of the leading Oxford University Press monthly publication, The Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice (JIPLP), which IPKat team member Jeremy (jiplp.blogspot.com/) edits, with assistance from Deputy Editor Eleonora. As of today, this blog has 1,020 email subscribers and a searchable database of 634 items. This blog's content includes Current Intelligence notes, book reviews, requests for articles on specific topics and occasional guidance as to how to write (or not to write) good IP articles. There's an active and carefully moderated LinkedIn Group for JIPLP contributors and readers with over 330 members, which you can see here. You can also follow this blog on Twitter here.

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Afro-IP (afro-ip.blogspot.com/), for which the blogmeister is Darren Olivier, deals with the IP scene in Africa. As of today, this blog has 912 email subscribers and a searchable database of nearly 1,840 items. This blog, which offers the largest single searchable online source of recent African IP news, features Caroline Ncube, Jeremy Speres, Isaac Rutenberg and Chijioke Ifeoma Okorie within its blog-squad. Afro-IP can be followed on Twitter here.

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IP Tango (iptango.blogspot.com/), which is a bilingual blog with contributions both in Spanish and English, covers the increasingly important developments for IP in Latin America. As of today, this blog has 550 email subscribers and a searchable database of nearly 1,450 items. Like Afro-IP, IP Tango is a major source of intellectual property information and comment in its increasingly important area of focus.

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Art & Artifice (www.artandartifice.net/). As of today, this international weblog, which includes Simone Blakeney, Rosie Burbidge, Rachel Buker, Angela Saltarelli, Elizabeth Emerson and Marian Ang, has 570 email subscribers and a searchable database of 481 items. Its scope is broad enough to cover not merely intellectual property law but other areas of legal concern for artists and the art-driven industries. Art & Artifice recently launched a Twitter presence that is followed by getting on for 300 readers.

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Revitalised last year and growing in momentum is SOLO IP, which reflects some of the interests, and the anguish, of those who practise IP by themselves or in small groups, or who work in environments in which they are the only IP people (soloip.blogspot.com/). As of today, this blog -- which is driven by blogmeister Barbara Cookson (Filemot Technology Law Ltd), has 310 email subscribers and a searchable database of 481 items. This blog warmly invites expressions of interest from would-be bloggers (on which see 'Would you like to be an IP Blogger' below)

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Would you like to be an IP blogger? Most of the weblogs listed above are still hoping to recruit some fresh talent into their blogging teams, as well as to host more good guest items from occasional writers. If you (i) have something valuable to say about IP, (ii) have some experience of IP in one form or another and (iii) think that you may be able to turn your hand at blogging (or already have some experience), do email Jeremy at jjip@btinternet.com, attaching or linking to your CV, and explain why you think you might be a good blogger.

Pilzwanderungen

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 19:47:31 +0000

I do miss the chances I had in Germany of going on guided mushroom-collecting walks. They have some here in Havering but I doubt the woods are so exciting. And there was also the Naturhistorische Gesellschaft Nürnberg e.V. with Ursula Hirschmann, where you could sit in the lecture hall and all sorts of poisonous and non-poisonous mushrooms were passed round. I remember woods whose floors were covered in deep moss studded with the most various mushrooms, which I largely did not dare eat. There is a system where people qualify as mushroom/toadstool experts and a list of people to contact to inspect your day’s collection. I had my basket, knife and brush, and a mushroom app, but I was cruelly torn out of it.

This might have helped some of the Syrians et al. who have been trying the death cap mushroom (Knollenblätterpilz) recently. That was usually the first one we looked at and learned. The Washington Post reports:

According to a warning issued by Hanover Medical School in northern Germany, more than 30 refugees have been sickened after eating “death cap” mushrooms — a species so toxic a small amount of it can cause organ failure in a matter of days.

Die Zeit has a nice map of treated cases of mushroom poisoning from 2008 to 2013 (most survived).

Guardian: Germany attributes spike in mushroom poisonings to foraging refugees

Nice-ly done: CIPO now accepting voluntary classification of goods and services

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 18:14:53 +0000

Following our post from July 2015, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (“CIPO”) is now accepting trade-mark applications filed with goods and services classified using the Nice Classification system. As part of this process, CIPO has also updated the online Canadian trade-marks database, such that “Nice classification” is now a possible search field. In addition, the Canadian Goods and Services Manual has been updated to allow users to search for specific terms within all 45 Nice classes, and to cut-and-paste or import text containing a list of goods and services for proposed classification by the database.

Once the upcoming changes to the Canadian trade-mark regime come into effect, there will be a requirement to classify the goods and services claimed in an application into Nice classes, and to have that classification approved by an Examiner. For the time being, however, the classification of goods and services by an Applicant is entirely voluntary.

As another interim point of interest, where the Examiner does not agree with an Applicant’s classification of goods and services for a yet-to-be advertised application, CIPO will nevertheless advertise the application in the Trade-marks Journal if no other requirements and/or objections are outstanding – but without the Nice classification. Obviously, this will no longer be the case once the changes to Canada’s trade-mark regime come into force.

We will provide an update as soon as it becomes mandatory to classify goods and services in Canadian trade-mark applications. In the meantime, the ability to search all Nice classes and to view the expanded list of goods and services that are acceptable to CIPO is a welcome update.

Public Forum — Second Plenary Session: “Making trade work for business”