Monday miscellany

The latest news from Marine Technologies v Burchill (see earlier posts here, here and here) is that the IPKat fielded a phone call from the Royal Courts of Justice earlier this afternoon from Mr Burchill. The court has made an Unless Order: Marine have 14 days in which to get their IP infringement action together or it withers on the judicial vine. See also the very perceptive comment of an anonyomous reader here, mentioning that it's exactly when case management powers are most needed that they don't seem to work at all.


What exactly, the IPKat asked last week, is this shadowy organisation called the European Intellectual Property Association (EIPAWEB)? Olivier Van Droogenbroek has kindly given him an answer:

"The email you received from the EIPA is probably a scam. The registrant of the eipaweb.org website is a Nichifor Valentin. When googling on his name you can find some interesting stuff here".

Readers are invited to draw their own opinions. Meanwhile, thank you Olivier, for your neat little bit of detective work.


The IPKat's friend Smita Kheria (Queen's University Belfast) has sent him news of a US case she found on Lexis, Richard Bach and others v Forever Living Products US, Inc and others, where the District Court of Washington allowed both copyright and trade mark infringement claims to proceed regarding the book and character of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Bach, who wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and Russell Munson, whose photographs appear in it, sued Forever Living for using a photo from the book as their corporate logo, not to mention using bits of the book, plot and imagery in their advertising, promotional and training materials, in communications with their independent distributors, in their sale and distribution of FLP products, and so on. Sensible discussion from Rebecca Tushnet's excellent 43(B)log here. The IPKat just speculates as to whether there's a secondary market here for the authors and illustrators of children's books: corporate endorsement and the licensing of text and images for corporate image enhancement. Merpel adds, catch a child when he's young and you'll have a customer for life - is that the game?

Jonathan Livingston Seagull: a biography here
Google hits for Jonathan Livingston Segal here
Essex Seagull Pudding recipe here
Dutch Seagull recipe here; French Fried Seagull here
Seagulls as film stars here