Monday Meraviglia

An ancillary right over news content also in Italy?  IPKat readers will remember that a few days ago Spain adopted a major reform of its IP system. Similarly to what happened in Germany last year, from 1 January 2015 also Spain will have an ancillary right over news content. And perhaps it will not be the last EU Member State to adopt an initiative of this kind. Not only did new EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Günther Oettinger, suggest that something similar may be also adopted at the EU level [here], but last week Italian newspaper La Repubblica featured an interview with the chief of the Italian Federation of Newspaper Publishers, Maurizio Costa, who explained that it is about time that Italian Government also introduces an ancillary right over news content. Fans of all things copyright and Italy will promptly recall that this is not the first time that this idea is mentioned.

"ISH-TIP!"
"Bless you!"

Are you open to some IP history or theory?  Via Katfriend and learned (among many other things) IP historian Professor Lionel Bently (University of Cambridge) comes the news that the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP) [this Kat still recalls with amusement what Jeremy said of this acronym back in 2010] will hold its 7^th annual workshop at the University of Pennsylvania on 22-24 July 2015. This year's theme is 'Openness and Intellectual Property', and there is now a call for papers. Further details can be found on ISHTIP website.


Speaking of IP events  If you happen to travel to the South of England and find yourself in Southampton, you may want to attend on these events which have something to offer to everybody.


Around the weblogs  John Enser was busy writing for The 1709 Blog last weekend, both reporting that the UK Intellectual Property Office has just published its Guidelines on the Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) complaints process, and devoting a post to an invariably sexy topic, ie retransmissions under US copyright. Patent litigation-friendly [is that an oxymoron, wonders Merpel] blog PatLit features a post that explains why the decision in the matter T 0584/09 might have been unduly overlooked. Although being in transit to Australia for a grand tour of lectures, Jeremy could not resist commenting on FICPI's Resolution on colour marks on MARQUES/Class 46. Finally, this Kat has discovered a blog called Peep Beep, devoted to all things privacy and information security law.