Wednesday whimsies

Queijo de Cabra Transmontano:
non-minor-amended PDO

Around the weblogs. Until this Kat met Meera Nair, he was unaware of her copyright law and policy weblog Fair Duty. Well, here it is, and it's definitely worth taking a look at.  Meanwhile, the MARQUES Class 46 European trade mark law blog lists another batch of "non-minor amendments" to EU protected geographical indications and designations of origin. This Kat would love to know how much scrutiny these non-minor amendments receive, what is their cumulative effect, whether the non-minor amendments always extend rather than narrow down the scope of protection and whether anyone is currently doing any research on this phenomenon.  Elsewhere The SPC Blog has just launched its 2013 seminar, which takes place on 2 July in the London office of Olswang LLP (near the Old Nick). Whether you love pharmaceutical patents to the point of extending them, or side with the generic drug industry in aiming to prise them away from patent protection, this is for you.

Turkish academic and katfriend Mehmet Artemel has been busily spreading the word that the International Conference on Managing Intellectual Property in Universities is about to take place, for the third  year in succession.  As before, the venue is the Bogazici University, Istanbul, and the event runs from tomorrow, 23 May, through to 25 May -- so even if you can't magic yourself there in time for the beginning, you might yet make it for the end.  The IPKat has asked Mehmet to let him know if there's anything particularly worth reporting, in which case it will find its way on to one or other of a number of IP weblogs. In the meantime, you can check out the programme here.

Some Indexes attract more
attention than others ...

This Kat has previously praised the Global IP Index, which is coordinated and edited by Taylor Wessing LLP partner and Katfriend Roland Mallinson, not least because some information about how people regard the IP rituals and routines in other countries is always fun, and also because it has an inherent capacity to encourage reforms in those countries that score badly when compared with others.  Each year's Index draws its data, and therefore its appeal, from the survey of IP owners and practitioners, including many readers of this weblog.  To refresh readers' memories, each year's report gives a snapshot assessment of IP regimes around the world and recent developments. In response to requests from practitioners and some government officials, this year's Global IP Index, the fourth, has now expanded the number of countries which it embraces [the 12 newly-listed countries include Switzerland, Ukraine, Indonesia and Thailand].  Says Roland:

"I hope this may appeal to your wider international readership as a result. However, there's still the option of narrowing responses to just a few countries and to answer anonymously if preferred, so it can still be done fairly quickly and painlessly".

If you enjoy sharing your opinions with others, or just enjoying doing online surveys, the link is here.

The MARQUES Workshops on trade mark coexistence agreements (or 'prior rights' agreements, if you prefer) are filling up nicely.  The first, in English, takes place in Rotterdam on 18 June (details here); the second, in German, will be held in Munich a day later (details here). If they work out as well as is hoped, with luck there will be more of them in the future, spread across other European cities.  But wouldn't it be grand to tell your grandchildren that you were there for the very first one ...?

Did celebrated artist 
Jackson Pollock start out
by designing infographics?

If you love brands and like to savour the occasional infographic, you will probably appreciate this one which has been brought to the attention of the IPKat by Exeter, England-based law firm Stephens Scown Solicitors. It contains some fascinating data relating to UK trade mark filings in 2011.  For example, did you know that three of the five top companies filing UK trade mark applications have names that end with the letter 'o'?  [Merpel adds: can you name them?].  Also, Welsh applicants file three times as many applications as those from Northern Ireland, and the Scots file twice as many as the Welsh -- but if you add Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland together you get only around as many applications as appear to come from East Anglia.  So now you know ..