Wednesday whimsies

If you're thinking of signing up for this year's IP Law Summer School there's still time. Organised by Informa, this long-established programme is a popular, fully residential course for junior IP lawyers, in-house counsel and commercial managers who require a solid grounding in IP law. Hosted in Downing College, Cambridge University, the course offers four nights accommodation at the college, not to mention regular meals and what the organisers describe as " a range of fun evening activities, including punting on the River Cam, a quiz night and a BBQ". Even more fun is the chance to be exposed to the attentions of "the expertise of over 30 internationally acclaimed IP experts over the course of 5 days", one of whom is too modest to mention who he is. You can check out the programme and register for it here.

There's just one day to go if you want to make your opinion count in the PatLit poll. The basic issues are simple: should this patent litigation weblog just cover patents or should it deal with all IP rights, and should it focus narrowly on litigation or broaden out to alternative dispute resolution topic? Click here for further information.

FRAND or foe? "I'd always thought that FRAND meant 'fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory' in the context of patent pools", says the IPKat's friend Robin Fry (Beachcroft LLP, "but now it seems that FRAND is a brand that is also a friend!". He quotes from Ogilvy & Mather's OgilvyOne Connected Report (here), which says: "Social media users are no longer discriminating between ‘brands’ and ‘friends’. They are simply identifying a third group they can engage with – ‘frands’".


Around the weblogs. Congratulations on the 1709 Blog, which focuses exclusively on the highways and byways of copyright law -- this blog has now notched up its 600th email subscriber, which shows a gratifying level of support from its regular readers. From Australia comes a quality product -- both blog and journal -- the Fortnightly Review of IP & Media Law (here). This new online title has emerged from beneath the aegis of the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (IPRIA) and is hosted in conjunction with the Centre for Media and Communications Law (CMCL) at the University of Melbourne. It has a strong team of cogent and respected writers, whom the IPKat, Merpel and their pals wish the best of luck and a rosy future (thanks, Alex Hardy of Orion, for this information).