The IPKat regrets to inform readers that one of the weblog’s treasured contributors, Dr Neil J. Wilkof, lost his mother earlier this week.  All the Kats offer their sincere condolences to Neil and to all his family on the occasion of their bereave…

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Please spare a thought for the family and friends of Johan Nortje, a senior South African customs investigator who, having enjoyed considerable success in the fight against the tidal wave of counterfeits, has been murdered amid fears that the gangs who…

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Left to right: Lavinia Carey (British Video Association),
IPKat team member Jeremy and ex-IP Minister David Lammy MP
To refresh the memories of the IPKat’s readers, the photo above was taken at the All Party Parliamentary IP Group reception at t…

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The auditors did warn WIPO that its building budget
was going to be at the expense of its ageing rapid
response Central Europe dot.biz tank squad
Some dedicated readers — almost all, judging by the IPKat’s mailbox — have been following the saga of …

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It’s enough to make|
a Kat cry …
WIPO trade mark “neither necessary nor useful”.  It is now ten days since the Kat alerted his friends at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to the scurrilous activities of an imitator which, it…

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What! So few days to go!
There’s not much warning — but the Intellectual Property Institute is bursting into action.  In just over a week, on Tuesday 25 January, there is to be an IPI Symposium.  The topic is ” Enforcement and the SME”, an…

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Forthcoming events? You can check them here on the IPKat’s own dedicated page for them.  If you want to list an event of your own, please let the Kat know, but PLEASE keep the information short, sweet and in the body of your email — nothing that …

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Lacking opposable thumbs, Kitty always
had trouble with her flower-arrangements
Don’t mock plants. They are just as profitable as other intellectual property subject-matter if you can deploy your skills correctly, and they can be exciting to litigat…

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The IPKat has been so busy sorting through entries to his Harry Potter competition that he has only just got round to posting the winning one. To remind readers: author JK Rowling seeks your advice as to the title of the next Harry Potter book (the one…

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In general, since breach of confidence is an equitable tort, disputes involving the protection of trade secrets are heard in England and Wales in the Chancery Division of the High Court — the old “home” of equity and the current home of the Patents Co…

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Today’s your last chance to vote in the Starbucks New Logo poll: if you’re an email reader and don’t often visit the site but would like to vote, just click here and you should find the poll at the top left hand corner of your screen.  The bone of…

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Watch out, Court of Justice –
you can’t appropriate jurisdiction
with impunity!
When the lion roars, do we not all sit up and pay attention?  How much so when it is more than a lion — a Lionel, in fact — and none other than Professor Lionel B…

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Art and Artifice is a new art-and-law weblog, covering all aspects of art — particularly but not limited to visual art — and its points of intersection with the law. The team consists of Simone Blakeney (McCann Erickson), Rosie Burbidge (F…

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The MarkMinotaur …
The IPKat likes to bring the best and most positive news to his readers, but alas this isn’t always possible.  Breaking news is that, following KPMG’s revelation last month that London is the world counterfeit capital, …

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AdWords, trade marks and adjacent European Union Member States linked by a common language — are these not the ingredients of a first-rate piece of litigation? Of course they are, which is why the IPKat posted two items on a trade mark dispute th…

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Going it alone …
Following last Thursday’s post (“Unrepresented patent applicants: a little thought”, here) there has been a great deal of interest among readers, generating over 20 comments — some of which are highly perceptive and based on exper…

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Paris Convention:
effective protection
in its day, but is it
adequate for 2011?
In need of protection: WIPO and the patenting public.  Following the IPKat’s post on Friday (here) on what appears to be a scam in which patent applicants are invite…

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The Kats take an interest
in BRIC licensing …
Even though he’s not on the conference programme, or perhaps because he isn’t, the IPKat is intrigued by some of the content of a forthcoming LexisNexis one-day conference, “Licensing Patents & Know…

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Cat wedding stickers,
from Zazzle here
Have you been trying to book a place to attend the conference on “The Royal Wedding and British Business: Intellectual Property Perspectives on Major Events”, billed for 8 February in Central London? And did you…

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Mata Hari: shot by the French for espionage.
In modern times, would she have been an
interchangeable mistress?
“Three executives suspended by Renault for suspected industrial espionage” is the exciting title of a bit of breaking news that reached the…

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