Same old Kat, but some new faces

Same old Kat, but some new faces

Now here's a surprise - the IPKat weblog team is about to grow. The blog was started in June 2003 by Jeremy and Ilanah, who put a huge amount of effort into keeping a good flow of news and comment. However, IP just continues to grow bigger and more complex and the original duo are hard-pressed to keep up with it. For this reason the IPKat is happy to welcome two new bloggers to its team: Johanna Gibson and David Pearce.

Johanna (right) is Reader in Intellectual Property Law at the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London. Her background is in law as well as cultural and critical theory and animal sciences. Before moving to academe, she practised Intellectual Property, Communications, Media and Technology at Allens Arthur Robinson (Melbourne, Australia). Much of Jo's research is concerned with IP and socio-economic development. The European Patent Office has consulted her on future patent policy and she has participated in expert forums on copyright, digital rights management, human rights and intellectual property.

Jo's current research project, Patenting Lives, examines socio-economic and cultural aspects of biotech patents, particularly in developing countries. Johanna publishes widely and is the author of two books - Community Resources: Intellectual Property, International Trade and Traditional Knowledge (2005) and Creating Selves: Intellectual Property and the Narration of Culture (2006). The general editor of a new intellectual property series for Ashgate Publishing (Intellectual Property, Theory, Culture), she is a seasoned blogger who already maintains two blogs, Patenting Lives and IPMed.

David (left) read Electronic & Structural Materials Engineering at Exeter College, Oxford, following which he performed research in the Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Materials for High Performance Applications at the University of Birmingham, which led to his PhD in high temperature oxide ceramic composites. Further research at the Centre led to his invention of what became the Helimorph, one of a number of patented inventions that stands to David's credit.

After working with a Cambridge start-up company in the development of his IP, David decided to pursue a career in IP,. He studied for an MSc in the Management of Intellectual Property at Queen Mary University of London, following which he took up employment as a trainee patent attorney with the Nottingham firm of Eric Potter Clarkson. David is no stranger to IP web culture. Apart from having created the ukpatents wiki, he has also contributed comments on the IPKat weblog under his nom de guerre Woodpecker.

The IPKat hopes that the enlargement of the blogging team will make it easier to keep a good flow of information and comment coming through and strengthen the blog's patent content. Enjoy!