WOE competition - the winner

The United Nations has just created a new agency, the World Office for the Environment (WOE), which is charged with preserving the health of the planet, combating global warming, grounding aeroplanes, stopping the burning of rainforests and so on. You have been commissioned to create a catchy slogan for WOE, of not more than 15 words, that will capture the hearts and minds of the wasteful, wanton inhabitants of the heaviest energy-consuming nations. That was the brief for the IPKat's latest competition.

Above, right: WOE graphic from the remarkable Owlhaven weblog

Usually the entries to IPKat competitions are pretty humorous, often unprintably so. This time round, entries were mainly serious in their tone, a reflection on our dawning realisation that the environment is a bigger issue than even software patents.

Left: the world is a beautiful place, thanks to a clean environment and lots of plant varieties rights ...

Some of the better entries include the following:

"Learning from the past, preserving the present, to save the future": George Apaya (Brand Protection Lawyer, BBC Worldwide)

"WOE - where carbon footprints fear to tread...": Shlomi Isaacson (Watson & Burton)

"WOE is me. No more SUV": Edward Smith (UK Patent Office/UKIP Office)

Right: UK Patent Office standard issue SUV

"People and Earth, incompatible? WOE, working out equilibrium": Gareth McClure (University of Strathclyde)

"The Antarctic will look like Ibiza if you do not care for our planet": Catherine Maninska

And this time round the winner is Sally Cooper (trade mark attorney, Altrincham, Cheshire UK), who also submitted a number of most ingenious adaptations/parodies of various popular rhymes and anthems -- the IPKat suspects a future career here ...

"Earth will die if, full of cares,
We don't find time to end her tears".

Well done, Sally, don't forget to email the IPKat here to arrange for your prize, complimentary admission to CLT's Copying Without Infringing conference next Tuesday (programme here).