MARQUES design reseach; forthcoming MARQUES workshop; .eu ADR wiki

Yesterday the IPKat flagged MARQUES' excellent research report on the first 150 decisions on the (in)validity of registered Community designs.

Right: Rumours abound that Europe's best-loved trade mark owners' organisation is cultivating a new image

He wondered, however, what steps had to be taken in order to get hold of it. Now, thanks to MARQUES Designs Team chairman David Stone, he has the answer. Says David:

"For MARQUES members, the report is available at www.marques.org by selecting Teams, then Designs Team, then Registered Community Designs.

For people who aren't members of MARQUES (I've already had an enquiry from a student), please ask them to get in touch with me at stoned@howrey.com, and I will assist.

The chart of decisions has also been updated to include all decisions up to 30 January 2007 (only 4 have been published since then), rather than just the first 150. This will shortly also be available at www.marques.org".

Thanks, David, says the IPKat. Strange, isn't it, murmurs Merpel (who is still mewsing over the Robert Louis Stevenson copyright stamps), that so many things that seemed quite mysterious only a day or two ago now seem quite straightforward.


While on the subject of MARQUES, that organisation has an upcoming event, "Counterfeiting Focus Spots: Asia and the Internet - Continuing Challenges for Brand Owners". This takes place on 22 May 2007 at the Hilton Hotel, Amsterdam Airport.

Left: the real Hilton Hotel, Amsterdam Airport. Beware of fakes

The secretariat has told the IPKat that there are still a few vacancies and that even late registrants will be warmly welcomed. Full details of this workshop and online registration are available on the MARQUES website, here. If you have any questions or queries then please do not hesitate to contact me, says the IPKat's friend and loyal MARQUES supporter Ingrid de Groot.


Finally, the IPKat has received a missive from his German friend Thomas Schafft (HK Krüger Rechtsanwälte, München). Getting to the point, Dr Schafft writes:

"My email’s purpose is to draw your attention to my (private) wiki on domain name alternative dispute resolution at www.adr-decisions.eu/wiki. The wiki is mainly focused on the dispute resolution process for .eu domain names, but also looks at the UDRP which was used as a template for the .eu mechanism. I am currently inching my way through the various legal texts adding cross references and links to definitions, and whenever I do legal work on the .eu ADR or the UDRP I recycle it for some explanatory comments in the wiki".

Dr Schafft then asks:

"Do you think it is worthwhile to mention this website in your blog? I hope that this might motivate some of your readers to transform their domain name experience into wiki notes and comments as well, which in the long run might help to make life a bit easier for everybody working in this specific area of IP law".

By way of further information, he adds:

"In addition to the wiki there are also some search tools at www.adr-decisions.eu, which provide full text searches on .eu ADR decisions, UDRP decisions, and Nominet DRS decisions. These tools use Google Custom Search and will therefore not find documents that are not indexed by Google, but I think they are nevertheless quite useful. All other search tools for UDRP decisions that I am aware of are either defunct (e.g. the "official" search tool at http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrpdec.htm), or cover only decisions of a single dispute resolution service provider (e.g. http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/index.html or http://domains.adrforum.com/decision.aspx)".

IPKat team blogger Jeremy is acutely embarrassed to confess that, while he is strongly in favour of developing wikis and believes they will displace, if not replace, much of the existing business currently handled by traditional law publishers and information providers, he has yet to try his hand at contributing to one - even though his colleague David runs a wiki of his own (UKPatents). He urges his readers not to be so pusillanimous but to take the plunge, add their notes and comments, and enrich the wiki as a medium for the incremental development of available information and understanding in the .eu ADR field.