DO YOU LIKE DESIGNS AND HAVE SOME TIME TO SPARE?; MAY TRADEMARK WORLD

Do you like designs and have some time to spare?

If so, would you like to read and comment on a draft chapter of a book on the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) that deals with designs law? If the answer's still yes, follow the link to here.

Right: designs and TRIPs - one man's pleasure is another man's headache


Trademark World for May

The May 2006 issue of Informa's ten-times-a-year Trademark World is full of jolly items, which is only to be expected from the issue that coincided with the International Trademark Association's 128th Annual Meeting earlier this month. The cover story, "When Dot Met Com", is an upbeat, bouncy piece by Philippa Edwards (Trade Marks Directory Service) on how brand owners can't afford to police the internet but can't afford not to police it either - well, that's the IPKat's spin on it.

There's also a more legal contribution from Pinsent Masons' Lee Curtis, who has taken time off from entering IPKat competitions in order to give a solid account of OHIM and UK practice regarding unused registered trade marks (the "abandoned vessels in the shipping lanes of trade", as Lord Justice Jacob poetically described them).

Merpel's choice is the precocious squash-playing law student Simon Teng's review of the recent European litigation in the MATRATZEN dispute. She's so pleased to see students writing: the youngsters of today are the venerable old commentators of tomorrow, so let's give them every encouragement.