Monday miscellany

New name.  The IPKat's friend Ákos Süle (attorney at law, Budapest) tells him that the name of the Hungarian Patent Office (Magyar Szabadalmi HIvatal) will be amended -- probably early next year -- to "Szellemi Tulajdon Nemzeti Hivatala".  This literally means "National Office of Intellectual Property". However, the HPO will probably use an English acronym, HIPO, corresponding to "Hungarian Intellectual Property Office".  The new name is not official yet, though the necessary legislation is now in its final phase. Says Ákos:

"The change of name probably reflects the existing competence of the HPO/HIPO in all industrial property matters and eventually new, widened competence in copyright matters.

Be sure to memorize the new name and please no not call the office "hippo" or Hypo (a Hungarian brand for a disinfectant similar to Ace, Domestos or Clorox) if you wish to avoid confusion".

The IPKat would never dream of calling the new office "hippo".  The hippopotamus is a very thick-skinned creature, whereas his Hungarian friends are sensitive souls.  Merpel adds, "I'd have called it 'Hungary for IP", but no-one asked me ..."


Whistleblowing, Wikileaks and the Pirate Party.  A press release from the Pirate Party UK states that

"Pirate Parties from around the world, including the Pirate Party UK, today reaffirmed their commitment to whistleblowing worldwide. Concerned about freedom of information, opinion and press, the Pirate Parties have decided in a joint resolution to make Wikileaks available on a worldwide mirroring infrastructure. The mirrors will guarantee that the release of US diplomatic cables can continue and previous publications will stay online.

More on Wiki Leeks here

The infrastructure created by the Pirate Parties is now hosting the Wikileaks content itself, not just redirecting traffic to one main server. "This decision does not mean that we specifically endorse the Wikileaks organisation", emphasises Loz Kaye. "We will also make this platform available to every other whistle-blower who needs to ensure that information is not deleted or blocked."

The current project includes Pirate Parties from many countries, and more parties are joining every day. The infrastructure is built in such a way that deleting or blocking part of it will not affect the availability of information as a whole. Loz Kaye explains: "This is a fight for fundamental freedoms on the Internet. We will not accept governmental attempts to restrict access to free press and constrain freedom of speech.""

This member of the IPKat team is concerned that, while the current Wikileaks saga is seen in terms solely of a political struggle between various factions each of which claims the moral high ground, there are bound to be implications where information, communicated in confidence by private sector enterprises, finds itself entering the public domain.  He believes that the debate is a far bigger and more complex one than some folk describe it (i.e. the forces of good want to disclose information; the forces of evil want to suppress it) and doubts that any society -- whether made up of people, businesses or countries -- can dispense with confidentiality completely. We live in difficult times.

Around the blogs.  "Hungary for IP" (see earlier item) is not your only East European IP pun for today.  The IPKat is delighted to inform readers of the Polish your IP weblog, masterminded by the Kat's friend Marek Lazewski and his colleagues at LDS Lazewski Depo & Partners, Warsaw.  Marek wants comments, suggestions for improvement and, above all, readers!  American football fans, Superbowl Shufflers and copyright enthusiasts might enjoy Aurelia J. Schultz's piece on Da Bears in the 1709 Blog.  The ABA Journal has now published its list of 100 Top Blawgs, six of which are in the field of intellectual property.  Of the 100, the IPKat thinks he is the only one which isn't all-American. The Kat is honoured to be listed among such excellent blogs as Patently-O and the TTABlog. You can vote for your favourites too [Says Merpel, the blogosphere is located largely in the US, so you'd better write "favorites" ...].  Are Tweets protected as copyright works? This Kat had always assumed that they obey the same rules for copyright protection as any other literary works.  For The Bright Spark's analysis, click here.

This is how the American Enterprise
Institute sees it -- but are there more
than three possible positions?

If you are one of those people who get excited about gene patents, this is for you: an Australian Senate committee has released its long-awaited report into gene patents and Allens Arthur Robinson's Trevor Davies has recorded his take on the subject here on Boardroom Radio ("Australia's Largest Corporate Webcaster"). Trevor covers not just the report's major findings but also a Private Member's Bill that could have serious consequences for the Australian biotech industry.