Wednesday whimsies

Originality in EU Copyright: Full Harmonization through Case Law is a book which this Kat can honestly say he has read from cover to cover, since it is based on the author's PhD thesis which it was his privilege to examine.  The author, Eleonora Rosati, is of course a fellow Kat, which means that any attempt to write about this book in an objective, dispassionate manner, was doomed from the outset.  We all think the world of Eleonora, who is great fun to work with -- perceptive, funny and possessed of a powerful analytical capability.

This Kat's friends at Edward Elgar Publishing have done a handsome job in turning Eleonora's thesis into a pleasant and comfortably readable book, about which they have this to say:

"Full harmonisation of the copyright laws of EU member states has long been a holy grail for copyright lawyers but, with the reality thus far being only limited harmonisation resulting from ad-hoc legislative interventions, there are serious questions over the feasibility and indeed desirability of this goal. Notwithstanding, as this book makes eloquently clear, whilst legislative initiatives have been limited, the CJEU [Court of Justice of the European Union] has been acting proactively, establishing through its decisional practice the de facto harmonization of an important principle of copyright: the originality requirement.

Through an assessment of the originality requirement, this work guides the reader in interpreting judicial decisions which are of fundamental importance to current and future understanding of EU copyright. The book’s holistic approach and methodology takes in analysis of; recent decisions of the CJEU in light of broader EU copyright reform debate; the implications of CJEU case law in Member States which have traditionally adopted different approaches to copyright (eg the UK); the originality requirement in EU, UK and continental Member States; recent UK decisions from an EU perspective; and academic copyright reform projects, both in Europe and the US".

If nothing else, this book should be compulsory reading for the judges belonging to the CJEU, so that they can see what they've done.  It will also be compulsive reading for lovers of certain basic copyright concepts and who want to know what "originality" really means.

Bibliographical data:  Hardback, xxviii + 272 pages. ISBN 978 1 78254 893 5; ebook ISBN 978 1 78254 894 2. Price:  Hardback £80 (online, £72 from the publishers).  Book's web page here.  From now till the end of the calendar year, IPKat readers are entitled to a 35% reduction quoting the discount code ROSA35.  Eleonora is also running a competition till 4 November, for which the prize is a free copy: details here.

Back in August 2011, the following small item appeared as part of one of the IPKat's Monday Miscellany posts:

Patents and the Public Domain. Some readers may recall that, earlier this year, IPKat team blogger Jeremy was preoccupied with the interaction of the patent system with the public domain.  This was because he was preparing a study for his friends at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on that very subject.  This paper has now been published on the WIPO website as document number CDIP/4/3/REV./STUDY/INF/2 [he had been hoping for a more exciting document number, but this was the only available at the time] on the bit of the website that's called "Projects for Implementation of Development Agenda Recommendations". The document itself is called Study on Patents and the Public Domain and you can read it here.  It's not all written by this Kat, incidentally: it also contains scholarly contributions from India, Colombia, Egypt, Ukraine and South Africa. If you get a chance to read it, please let the IPKat know what you think!

Curiously enough, there's a sequel to this. A new document, "Study on Patents and the Public Domain (II)" has been prepared for WIPO by James G. Conley (Clinical Professor of Technology, Kellogg Center for Research in Technology and Innovation, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University), Peter M. Bican (Doctoral Candidate, Chair of Technology and Innovation Management, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management) and none other than Jeremy's fellow Kat Neil Wilkof.  You can access and read this study as a docx file (here) or as a pdf file (here).  Which Kat will be invited to write the next WIPO paper on the subject, wonders Merpel ...

Around the weblogs. Writing on Class 46, Gino van Roeyen chronicles the misfortunes of both parties in a monumental scrap between owners of Benelux trade mark registrations for POPSTARS and POPSTARS -- THE RIVALS. On PatLit, guest blogger Suleman Ali asks if we're too afraid to rethink the patent system. Meanwhile, IP Finance reports on the UK IPO's latest support for IP-based businesses, which appears to consist mainly of new apps.  Art & Artifice notes the publication of a lovely new book, Freedom of Artistic Expression: Essays on Culture and Legal Censure, by Paul Kearns.

Courses for trade mark attorneys: plenty of CPDs.  On 10 December our friends in the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys tuck into what, for many of them, is likely to be the first of many Christmas lunches; no doubt it will be comprised of several courses.  This feast, redolent with CPDs (Christmas Pudding Desserts), takes place in the luxurious surroundings of the Intercontinental Park Lane, London.  Prices are being held at last year's rates and there's only room for 600 -- so you'd better get a move on if you're thinking of attending!  Registration details are here.