Patent seminar -- a reminder

Patent Law and Theory is the title of the latest book emerge from the stable of Anglo-American publishing house Edward Elgar Publishing. Edited by the IPKat's friend Toshiko Takenaka (Professor of Law and Director, Center for Advanced Study and Research on Intellectual Property, University of Washington School of Law, US), this book forms part of the publisher's Research Handbooks in Intellectual Property series, under the editorship of IPKat team blogger Jeremy. Full details of the book and its contributors can be found on the Edward Elgar website here.

To mark the event, law firm Olswang -- where Jeremy holds an IP consultancy -- has kindly agreed to make its London office available for a Patent Seminar which metamorphoses into a book launch reception at the point when the chairman (Jeremy again) closes the afternoon programme and the corks start popping. The seminar takes place in the afternoon of Tuesday 17 March, is free, has some great speakers, comes with 3 CPD points and is likely to be oversubscribed. Copies of the book, possibly with the ink still wet, should be available too, at knock-down prices (if you want to buy it) or to inspect (if you don't).

The serious bit of the afternoon, which is actually most of it, consists of the following papers:

* "Patents in theory and in practice – a view from the EPO", by author and longstanding expert patent analyst Peter Watchorn (European Patent Office and EPC-Compass);

* "Open source and open minds: patents in a new commercial environment", in which Robert Gomulkiewicz (CASRIP, Washington; visiting professor, Oxford) -- a man who writes his own open source licences -- reflects on the current tensions between proprietary and open commercial policies and the law that affects them;

* "Issues that refuse to go away -- utility and industrial applicability", in which leading practitioner turned academic Christopher Wadlow (University of East Anglia) takes a fresh look at the simplest principles that underpin the patent system;

* "Patent litigation: at what price?" in which PatLit team member Michael Burdon (Olswang) looks at the direction taken by the debate on affordable patent litigation since he first tabled the Burdon Plan.

There then follows the cocktail reception, to which Edward Elgar Publishing and Olswang are delighted to invite you. If you'd like to attend the afternoon, please respond to the electronic invitation here.  60 people have already signed up, representing patent owners, practitioners in private practice and in-house, commentators and academics. Be sure to join them!