IPKat Readers Google Group

[The IPKat - supporting prudent IP use] Mystery Canon case: can anyone help?

j...@btinternet.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:17:29 UT

The IPKat wonders if any readers can help him. Information has just
been posted on the Curia website concerning Case C-181/09 Canon
Kabushiki Kaisha v IPN Bulgaria OOD, a reference for a preliminary
ruling from the Sofiyski gradski sad (Bulgaria) lodged on 19 May 2009.
This is an intellectual property case, so the IPKat is already deeply

[The IPKat - supporting prudent IP use] Some recent books

j...@btinternet.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:36:40 UT

A Defense Of Intellectual Property Rights, by Richard A. Spinello and
Maria Bottis, is that rare creature these days -- a book on
intellectual property rights that is not predicated by the
considerations of economics and the demands of the marketplace. A
little unfashionably, the authors argue the case that intellectual

[The IPKat - supporting prudent IP use] Wednesday whimsies

j...@btinternet.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:37:15 UT

Happy midweek, everyone! As the count-down to the weekend begins, the
Kats remain busy enough, gathering up some choice offerings for you and
trying their very best to come up with some fresh insights

European trade mark organisation MARQUES is now tweeting. You can
follow MARQUES on Twitter here.

[The IPKat - on the prowl for IP news] Do you suffer from Diaresis?

j...@btinternet.com (Jeremy) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:20:05 UT

Do you suffer from Diaresis? Do you have an Acute Circumflex or a Grave
Cedilla? If so, says the IPKat, there's no need to see a doctor. But
you should get wise to the fact that Thursday 10 December is the
apparently arbitrary date on which you will be able to register .eu top
level domain names with twiddly bits on the letters. The culprit, or

[The IPKat - on the prowl for IP news] Monday miscellany

j...@btinternet.com (Jeremy) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:58:00 UT

The IPKat, Merpel, Tufty and the AmeriKat wish all their readers a very
happy new week!

Coming soon. This Tuesday, 24 November, is the annual "Copying Without
Infringing" conference (programme here), with IPKat team member Jeremy
in the chair. Late bookings are still welcome! In two Tuesdays time, on

[The IPKat - on the prowl for IP news] Letter from AmeriKat I: Copyright -- t...

annsl...@gmail.com (Annsley Merelle Ward) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:01:31 UT

Last week the AmeriKat could be seen rushing all over the city
attending hearings, running errands, moving a bed across town or just
trying to get to a variety of appointments all on time. In fact you may
have been one of the unsuspecting shoppers on Oxford Street yesterday
whom she mowed down while racing to her fur appointment. The distances

[The IPKat - on the prowl for IP news] Letter from AmeriKat II: Bits and Pieces

annsl...@gmail.com (Annsley Merelle Ward) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:22:36 UT

• Microsoft’s Trade Secrets Case - Microsoft settled a lawsuit filed
earlier this year in Washington against a former employee that it had
charged with fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of
contract. Miki Mullor had applied for a job at Microsoft in 2005,
stating that he had been employed by Ancora as its CEO, a company that

[The IPKat - on the prowl for IP news] Friday fantasies

j...@btinternet.com (Jeremy) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:43:35 UT

Have you checked the IPKat's list of Forthcoming Events? There's plenty
coming up, as you can see from the side-bar on the IPKat's front page.
It gets a bit quiet over Christmas, but January's only just around the
corner.

Are you IP-savvy, as fit as a fiddle and always carry an umbrella in
case it rains? If so, the United Kingdom's IPO has a job for you as

[The IPKat - on the prowl for IP news] "Would you care for a glass of CANNABI...

j...@btinternet.com (Jeremy) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:12:46 UT

Drink and drugs were the main preoccupation of some of Europe's finest
legal brains this morning, when the Court of First Instance rendered
its decision in Case T‑234/06, Giampietro Torresan v Office for
Harmonisation in the Internal Market, Klosterbrauerei Weissenohe GmbH &
Co. KG, a decision which some of the IPKat's readers may feel to have

[The IPKat - on the prowl for IP news] IP rights "not the driver" for vegetab...

j...@btinternet.com (Jeremy) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:56:25 UT

While most felines have little affection for vegetation, the IPKat is
something of an exception. He has just been perusing "Patents and
Vegetable Crop Diversity", a US research paper by Paul J. Heald (Allen
Post Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law) and his
colleague Susannah Chapman of the same university's Department of

[The IPKat - on the prowl for IP news] The Digital Economy Bill - will it com...

d.h.pea...@gmail.com (David) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:34:02 UT

Nick McDonald of Browne Jacobson has written to the IPKat with the
following:

"Her Majesty in yesterday's Queen's Speech said the following: "My
Government will introduce a Bill to ensure communications
infrastructure that is fit for the digital age, supports future
economic growth, delivers competitive communications and enhances

[The IPKat - on the prowl for IP news] Internet-hosted prior art and proof of...

j...@btinternet.com (Jeremy) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:00:53 UT

In a recent hearing concerning a UK patent application, Ranger Services
Ltd's application, BL O/362/09, 17 November 2009, Hearing Officer
Lawrence Cullen was faced with a question relating to the status of
cited prior art which had been obtained from an internet archive.
Rejecting the application before him, which was for a system of using

[The IPKat - on the prowl for IP news] IP rights "not the driver" for vegetab...

j...@btinternet.com (Jeremy) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:15:34 UT

[The IPKat - on the prowl for IP news] R'n'D: the biggest spenders

mark.schwei...@gmail.com (Mark Schweizer) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:44:18 UT

The 2009 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard gives some interesting
facts and figures on the biggest spenders on research & development -
R&D that will, hopefully, also lead to some IP.

From the press release:
Worldwide corporate R&D investment increased by 6.9% in 2008, in spite
of the economic crisis. With an 8.1% increase, the R&D investment

[The IPKat - on the prowl for IP news] Have you ever seen two less likely all...

j...@btinternet.com (Jeremy) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:27:40 UT

Although he is generally reluctant to criticise individual IP rights
owners for seeking to protect their market position, and equally
reluctant to criticise those members of the IP professions who
represent them, there are times when the temptation to do so becomes
very great.

One such occasion when the temptation became fairly strong was today,