COMPUTER CONFERENCES; BLUE PETER BADGES

Computers & law – call for papers

The VIth World Computer Law Conference is taking place at the University of Edinburgh between 4-8 September 2006.

Contributions are sought in all legal aspects of the information society, but papers on IP aspects are particularly welcome.

If you want to take part though, you’d better get your skate on – abstracts of no more than 600 words are due in THIS FRIDAY (31 March).

Full details, including where to submit your papers, are available here.


Peter Panned

The BBC is attempting to combat the sale of Blue Peter badges on eBay. The badges, featuring the Blue Peter ship’s logo, are given to children who contribute to the Blue Peter television programme and enable them to gain free access to all sorts of nice touristy places. Blue Peter editor Richard Mason said:

"We know how hard children work to earn a badge, and we are doing our best to ensure that this long-standing Blue Peter institution is not undermined."

The IPKat can’t quite work out what the BBC’s objection is here. From Mason’s comments, it looks like he’s afraid of the diminution in the exclusivity of the badge, and so is mounting some kind of quasi-dilution argument. If the badges are fakes then he can understand the BBC’s position. More difficult issues arise if the badges in question are genuine Blue Peter badges. The IPKat reckons that there would be no exhaustion of rights defence here because the badges have been given away, rather than put on the market in the EEA, but it seems pretty rough if recipients can’t dispose of something that they have been given.