The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) welcomes some new officers. Eduardo Pisani was appointed Director General yesterday, a week after Haruo Naito was confirmed as the organisation’s new President. The Kats wish them both good luck and suspects that they are in for a busy old time …

Congratulations to jiplp the weblog on notching up its 100th email subscriber — just one week after its launch. You can view the jiplp blog, which supports the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP), here.

The excellent PowerPoints compiled by Tim Frain (Director of IPR, Regulatory Affairs, Nokia) for the talk he gave yesterday at IBC Informa’s “Standards and Patents” Conference on the proposed and shortly-to-be-adopted Unified Patent Litigation System (UPLS) can be found via conference media partner PatLit here. From the same site you can also pick up IPKat/PatLit team member Jeremy’s PowerPoints on why the UPLS isn’t going to change the world.

The 1709 Blog carries news of a rare England and Wales Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, decision in Gilham v R, [2009] EWCA 2293 (Ch), concerning a prosecution for circumvention of technical measures and money-laundering. The highlights of this ruling are the court’s admission that the word ‘substantial’ is a tricky one and its recital of the observation by Lord Justice Jacob that copyright cases involving complex techie issues like this one are better dealt with as civil actions before the Chancery Division. More details here.

If you were ever likely to forget the dangers of estoppel in UK trade mark litigation, there’s a salutary warning for you here on MARQUES’s Class 46 in yesterday’s Firecraft dispute. Thanks, Michael Edenborough (Serle Court) and McDaniel & Co for each sending the relevant details.

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If you’re interested in supplementary protection certificates and the prolongation of patent rights in pharmaceutical and agrochemical products, the SPC Law and Practice 2010 seminar, organised by the SPC Blog, is the place for you: the date, 13 January 2010. Details here.

Right: would you be more disappointed if the image on the right was (i) a stereotyped representation of a pharma scientist or (ii) a behind-the -scenes snapshot from the kitchen five minutes before the drinks are served?

For devotees of patent litigation, CASRIP’s Toshiko Takenaka is speaking on the differences between patent litigation in the US and Japan in the afternoon of Tuesday 8 December under the auspices of the PatLit weblog. Admission is free, full details here.

Left: inspired by Japanese martial arts, the Jackson Review in the UK comes up with a fresh approach to patent conflict resolution

If any further justification were needed for running an intellectual property journal in tandem with a weblog, here it is: Syngenta patent expert Dr Michael Kock has drafted an article for submission to the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice on the patentability of DNA sequences in Europe in the light of a reference to the European Court of Justice for which the oral hearings take place next month. You can read Dr Kock’s article and make comments to him by visiting the JIPLP weblog here.

If you’ve ever dearly wanted to tell the United Kingdom’s Intellectual Property Office what you think of its services, here’s a golden opportunity. The 2009 Customer satisfaction survey is on its way, in a rather different format from usual. Says IPO:

“We made a decision not to run a single end of year survey but to engage with our customers more regularly throughout the year and by varied means. One of the ways we have decided to use is a perpetual on-line survey (hosted by SurveyMonkey.com).

Left: Not the SurveyMonkey, we hope …

The survey was launched on 30 June 2009 and will be accessible until 31 March 2010. We are also able to add additional questions throughout the year if there is a specific change in practice which we may wish to obtain feedback on.
We would be grateful if you could spare approximately 5 minutes to complete the survey”.

The IPKat hopes that readers of this blog who use the IPO will avail themselves of this facility, and that they’ll remember to be generous in their praise of the good things the office does. You can find all the details you need here.

The Sultanate of Oman has taken the step we’ve all been waiting for, having decided to accede to the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. The UPOV Convention, as revised in 1991, comes into force with respect to Oman on 22 November 2009. Source: WIPO press release here.

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