Monday miscellany

Paul the Octopus: great
at predicting, but not much use
as a lobbyist for big business

Can you predict the future? SOLO IP arch-blogger Filemot has posted her IP Predictions for 2011 here; she challenges readers to add their own. tytoc collie notes with amusement the prediction that "the Unitary but not-Community Patent Initiative will not succeed. Politicians will blame tytoc collie reading masses for calling it a CRAP patent but the real reason will be that it will not have big business support". Merpel wonders whether big business support has ever been taken into account in the past: she struggles to recall the thunderous demands made by big business in favour of Europe's sui generis database right, the absurdly wide yet hopelessly narrow and largely unintelligible registered Community design, the extension of authors' copyright term, the protection scheme for three different species of geographical/traditional foods, the Information Society Directive, the Software Directive, the current version of the Technology Transfer Block Exemption -- or has Merpel just not been listening loud enough?

New hand at the steering wheel

From tytoc collie's friend Ian Harvey comes  nudge towards some news he'd missed.  Davd Roberts is the new Chairman of the UK Intellectual Property Office Steering Board.  Having served time at Glaxo SmithKline plc he is believed to have some familiarity with IP in practice; this Kat is relieved to see that experience is not a bar to his appointment, and wishes David luck.

Marvo liked the idea of
patents -- but could never
figure out the idea of
an enabling disclosure

Another of tytoc collie's friends, who is a bit shy about saying who he is, is collecting patent cases in which the same invention is found to be validly patented in one country but the same patent is held to be invalid in another, on account of the test for "inventive step" leading courts to contrary conclusions.

So far he only has a little list, relating to the patents for (i) Escitalopram, (ii) Lipitor, (iii) Viagra and (iv) Olanzapine, plus Conor Medsystems v Angiotech. If you have any more examples for his collection, please post them below.

Slightly dyslexic and an occasionally careless reader, tytoc collie has had some trouble convincing himself that the CCC is the Copyright Clearance Center, nothing to do with Copyright Clarence at all.  Anyway, a new podcast is available from the CCC's Beyond the Book site: it features a (United States) Suffolk University Law School event in which CCC’s Chris Kenneally speaks with entertainment industry attorney Patti Jones and advertising executive Lenora Cushing; the trio ponder on the way trends in music licensing are changing how rock bands achieve fame and fortune. The podcast lives here but, if you can read more quickly than you can listen, a transcript for slow listeners can be found here.


Berenika Depo's sudden and untimely death last summer (see IPKat obituary here) was a loss not just to Polish intellectual property but to the IP community worldwide.  The Kat has just learned from her father Justyn that on 12 January the Polish Chamber of Patent Attorneys is granting Berenika a posthumous distinguished service award, to commemorate her efforts and achievements on behalf of the Polish profession.  Also, Berenika's 'Amici Berenicae' Foundation has been established, to further the education talented youngsters in Poland, Tibet and Nepal. You can donate a contribution to the 'Amici Berenicae' Foundation (PLN: 62 2490 0005 0000 4520 7616 3497; Euros - 33 2490 0005 0000 4600 4412 9303; US$ 97 2490 0005 0000 4600 4252 2413; SWIFT code: ALBPPLPW).  A book of essays in memory of Berenika is also planned: details will be supplied when they are available.