Monday miscellany

"The Strange World of IP Consents", launched on Friday afternoon as the fourth item down in the IPKat's Friday Fantasies feature, already has over 50 people registered. In case you missed the earlier notice,

" ... on Tuesday 19 February, 5pm to 7pm (inclusive of registration and refreshments: it's really 5.15pm to 6.30pm) in the lovely premises of Olswang LLP's London office at 90 High Holborn, IPKat blogger, practitioner, scholar and IP transaction guru Neil J. Wilkof will be sharing a double bill with heavy-hitting katfriend, IP Draughts blogger, scholar and IP transaction guru Mark Anderson in which they will be discussing exciting topics like trade mark consents and coexistence, and the difference between licences and covenants not to sue. IPKat blogmeister Jeremy will be in the chair, CPD points will be available and admission is, in true IPKat tradition, free. To register, email here with the subject line "IP Consents", giving your name and affiliation (if any). There are no other formalities. See you there?"

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BILETA, the British and Irish Law Education and Technology Association, is calling for papers for its 2013 conference, which will be held from 10 to 12 April in the Liverpool Law School, University of Liverpool. According to the IPKat's best information, the deadline for the Second Call for Submissions of abstracts and panel proposals is now extended to 25 February 2013. Submission of an abstract for presentation, works in progress or concept paper (not exceeding 700 words), which includes Title, Theoretical/Empirical framework and argument via the EasyChair Conference Management System at the earliest possible opportunity. for further details, inspiration and indeed anything else, contact katfriend Joseph Savirimuthu who will be pleased to hear from you.

Malta and IP is another forthcoming event -- being held on 7 February in London. It's a breakfast briefing at the Malta High Commission, at which event the topic of Malta as an Intellectual Property jurisdiction of choice is on the menu. The event speakers are lawyers from PWC (Malta) and Fenech & Fenech Advocates.  Attendance, on a first-come-first-served basis, is free of charge and, comfortingly for those who make it their habit to attend breakfast briefings, will include breakfast. The event opens at 8.30am (registration starts at 8 am) at  Malta House, 36-38 Piccadilly, London W1J 0LE.  To attend, email events.london@gov.mt by 6 February 2013.

Brüstle in the BGH. The full decision from the German Supreme Court Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) in the Brüstle patent matter (patentability of inventions relating to human embryonic stem cells) has now been posted on the BGH website, following its decision of 27 November 2012. The BGH had to issue a final decision in the matter following the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling in Case C-34/10 Oliver Brüstle v Greenpeace ( noted here and here by the IPKat) on the questions it referred to the CJEU. The reasons can be found here, in German. A big katpat to Nick Bassil (Kilburn & Strode LLP) for letting the Kats know.

Lolcat -- and a reminder. A katpat goes to our good friend Estelle Derclaye for this link to news of an exhibition of lolcat art which is currently gracing the catwalks of London. The display, Lolcat -- Teh Exhibishun, ends on Friday 13 February. The IPKat and Merpel should like to draw the attention of (i) new readers and (ii) old readers who should know better that their interest is in images of cats as they relate to intellectual property -- for example where a cat-based image is a parody of another's work -- and in the strategic use of cat images in order to enhance the text of materials posted on this weblog, but not in cats and news of cats as such.  In short, this is a weblog about intellectual property law which is written by cats, not a weblog about cats that is written by intellectual property lawyers. So, please, no more emails about cats stuck in trees, cats on fences, cats becoming mayors of various parishes, cats rolling around and (this is by far the largest class of unsolicited art) readers' cats fast asleep. They're all very cute but we really can't use them all. Thanks!

Around the weblogs.  It's second time round to Madagascar for Afo-IP's Kingsley Egbuonu on his tour of African official IP websites -- and all is well, he says.  Closer to Europe, Fidel Porcuna makes his debut post for the MARQUES Class 46 weblog with a tale of money laundering and allusions to unspeakable torture -- something to do with a Body Shop franchise, it seems.  There are three more books for prospective reviewers, offered on the jiplp weblog here.  Finally, IP Finance has something for anyone who wonders about IP and the taxation of Dutch sandwiches ...