Monday miscellany

Personal notes: (i) IPKat team member Jeremy is going to be very thin on the ground over the next couple of weeks, on account of his holidays, followed by a trip to the Fordham IP Conference. He'll be offline quite a bit, so please go easy on the emails; (ii) a new Kat will be announced on Sunday 1 May, bringing the team up to seven again -- so watch this space ...

The IPKat has no doubt that the Irish
could cope with a nuclear accident --
but could they handle this?

Educated and erudite readers of this weblog will no doubt be familiar with the famous banner headlines "Will the last person to leave Seattle/Britain/Ireland/Wherever please turn out the lights". This idea seems to have been the impetus behind an application to register in Ireland the word mark IRELANDS IRISH INDEPENDENCE DAY (No. 2011/00644, here), which covers the following description of services:

"I am trying to get an Independence day as a focus point to gather the nation if we should have a problem like Japan or nuclear accident in England we may have to leave Ireland". 

The Irish Patents Office will be faced with an unenviable task in classifying this description. If anyone has any bright ideas for the appropriate classes or suggested amendments, we're sure they'll be appreciated! [Many thanks to the Kat's friend Niamh Hall, FRKelly, for this gem].

Considering that it was announced earlier today, the take-up for the IPKat's Peer-to-Patent seminar on 6 June has been great. We already have over 20 people signed up. If you're thinking of attending -- don't leave it too long to respond.We look forward to having a super crowd ...


Getting ahead with the new technology, the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) should be able to offer its subscribers the benefits of mobile-optimised online access by the end of this coming June. You can read the details here. The IPKat doesn't know whether other IP journals and publications already offer this, but will be happy to hear from those that do.