The Poll Kat

The IPKat thought he'd just report on how a couple of weblog-driven opinion polls are going.

If you take a peek at the left-hand sidebar of the IPKat's own weblog you can see that, with a few voting days still to go (the poll closes at one minute to midnight, London time, this coming Sunday), the most popular name for the European Union's Community trade mark and design office is Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union (with 69 votes a the time of writing this article, or 30% of the votes cast). Next comes IP Europe (23%), followed by OAMI, the office's Spanish acronym (22%). The current name, The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM), trails on 15% but is still ahead of the avant-garde Brand and Design Factory which brings up the rear with 9%. There have also been several write-in votes for OHIM, with a plea that the winner of this poll be pitched against it in the next round of voting [the IPKat says hmm ...]. So far, 230 votes have been cast, but many voters are expected to make their decisions later in order to be able to boast that they voted for the winner. Be sure to cast yours!

The second poll, which closes at one minute to midnight next Monday night, London time, is an advisory one on what might be the best way of solving a problem: the Patents County Court in England and Wales is perceived as a good way of enabling IP litigants to resolve their disputes more speedily and cheaply than at present -- particularly if a number of proposed reforms are made -- but no-one wants to be the new judge. This poll, hosted on the PatLit patent litigation weblog, offers a number of possible solutions. So far, only 39 readers have cast their votes. However, the proposal to make the existing Patents Court judges take PCC cases in rotation is the clear leader, with 38% support. Least popular is the idea of making the position more attractive by doubling the appointee's pay, which musters just 7% support.