Friday fantasies

Don't forget to check the IPKat's Forthcoming Events page, which lots of exciting things to attend.  Quite a few are free, or have special discounts for IPKat readers!

Around the weblogs 1. Despite this Kat's unremitting hostility to the tiresome and cliche'd use of the lightbulb as a symbol of inventiveness, he has no objections to drawing the attention of his readers to interesting items that have been stigmatised by that environmentally unfriendly object. An example is the Lightbulb Blog, by Noric Dilanchian, on which readers will find (among other things) "Passing off, taking goodwill takes business", a note on the tussle between Rihanna and Topshop over the use of the former's face on the latter's t-shirts. Fortunately, while Noric uses the L-word, his blog doesn't carry a depiction of one. Another blog that this Kat has recently discovered belongs to the Design and Technology Association in the UK: you can check it out here.  It's still so new that it doesn't carry any overt references to IP issues, but the Kat intends to check it out in a while and see how long that state of affairs continues ...

Goodbye, Geschmacksmuster

Around the weblogs 2.  PatLit has been busy in the past few days.  Michael Thesen reminds us that the Germans have rebranded the Geschmacksmuster, now known as an eingetragenes Design ("registered design"), and muses over the role of the term "chairperson" in EPO Board of Appeal rules for the use of mobile devices. On the same blog, Stefano Barazza discusses a recent EPO ruling that touches on the destruction of human embryos.  Oh, and I almost forgot George Brock-Nannestad's breaking news about Denmark's ambitious plan to establish a local department of the Unified Patent Court. Readers who enjoy mysteries will be disappointed to discover that one has now been solved: the puzzle over a Court of Justice of the European Union reference that was resolved in just a few months. The solution is on The SPC Blog here.  Meanwhile, MARQUES will be busy jubilating over the fact that it now has a Community trade mark consisting of the words CLASS 99 for an impressive variety of services that include blogging as well as, comfortingly, "nautical apparatus" -- for those who are all at sea with design law, no doubt.

But are they moral ...?

"Are moral rights human rights?"  The PowerPoints for "Are moral rights human rights?", last week's joint meeting between the British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association (BLACA) and the IPKat are now available from the BLACA website, here. This seminar was kindly hosted in the London office of law firm Bird & Bird and chaired by Sir Colin Birss. The two presentations were made by Cyberleagle Graham Smith (an IP/IT partner, Bird & Bird) and the IPKat's copyright expert in residence Eleonora Rosati. The IPKat hopes that this will be followed by further events shared with BLACA in future times.

Er, shouldn't this be
streaming, not steaming ...?

Online copyright + enforcement = happiness? An update. The IPKat's very own forthcoming event on 1 April 2014, hosted in the lovely riverside building of law firm Bristows, has proved remarkably popular.  First, we had to relocate it from its original room to one with over twice the capacity. Then we discovered that we had attracted a massive reserve list with more "hopefuls" than acceptances.  We can now announce that Bristows have kindly agreed to arrange for streaming of the audio dimension of the event, together with synchronised PowerPoints, so that those who might otherwise be disappointed can at least have a chance to follow the event in real time.  Bristows have also offered to host a recording too, so anyone who needs to nip out in the middle in order to put the kettle on can later find the bit they missed. Further details of the streaming will be provided once they are available.