Friday fantasies

Sun or snow,
by Audrey

Forthcoming events. June is nearly upon us, with all the joys of summer (in the Northern Hemisphere) and winter (Down Under) that June can bring.  If you are hoping to share a little of that joy with fellow IP enthusiasts, do please check out the IPKat's Forthcoming Events page, which lists various opportunities to meet them and exchange news and views on the IP issues of your choice. Some of the listed events are actually free, while others are either affordable or offer discounts to IPKat readers [and some, adds Merpel, are rather expensive]. If you never attend any events, remember -- the alternative is the dreaded webinar ....

One up on FIFA: AIPPI gets
to use Cristo Redentor. Hope
this use is licensed ...

On the subject of forthcoming events, this year's AIPPI bonanzaWorld Congress will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 10 to 14 October 2015. You can check out the programme here. Alas, there aren't any discounts for Kats or their readers, but registrations made by 10 June 2015 benefit from a lower registration fee. Click here to register. For the benefit of those who have only just found the internet, who have new and exciting technical issues or who just hate the chore of online registration, help is available at registration@aippi.org.


Do you, like the IPKat, receive all the information you want from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)?  If so, please play attention to the this WIPO notice:

WIPO: on the road to a new
info-distribution platform

We’re moving to a new newsletter and press-release distribution platform.

Please renew your subscription and come with us!

As of June 16, 2015, all WIPO’s e-newsletters and press releases will be distributed through a new platform. This change will bring you:

• a central subscription page where you can manage all of your WIPO e-newsletter subscriptions and update your details and preferences; 
• a more user-friendly layout and design for WIPO e-newsletters; and
• new offerings: The WIPO Wire bi-weekly selection of news and features; DG’s Highlights; and the WIPO ADR Highlights from the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center.

To continue receiving press releases after June 16, 2015 please sign-up on our new platform.

If you aren't already a subscriber to WIPO's many services, do take the opportunity to visit the links above and take a look at quite how many different publications are on offer -- and they aren't all in English either!

Patent attorneys: a basic instinct
to train and take examinations ...

Basic instinct.  The time of year has come round again when the CEIPI course "Basic training in European Patent Law” (here) has started again in London. Fellow Kat Darren did a post about this last year.  The course is designed to teach European patent law to aspiring trainee patent attorneys, and is divided into the Basic Course, which works towards the European Qualifying Examination pre-Examination, and the Advanced course, for those who have passed the pre-Examination, which works towards the main EQE (explanation here).  The two levels of course run in parallel and each lasts one year. Simon Roberts, who is organising the London course, tells IPKat readers that the Basic course is nearly full, but that there are about 10 more places left available on the advanced course.  The Basic course costs 1,500 euros, the Advanced course £1,000.  In a new development, the organisers have started offering a conference call facility on the two courses (with experiments planned to use multipoint video conferencing via Skype or the like), as there are some students based beyond the M25 [an orbital road, circumscribing the Greater London area, which is sometimes described unkindly as the world's largest carpark]. Students could be accepted on either course if they want to use the conference call facility. The Basic sessions are on Wednesdays, the Advanced sessions are on Mondays. All the sessions are held in BT’s headquarters’ building by St Paul’s tube and the sessions run from 5.30 to 8.30 according to time-hallowed tradition.  There is no specific website for the London course in particular - anyone interested is asked to address enquiries by email to ceipilondon@gmail.com.

Prior art?

Around the weblogs. "Canadian Piracy Rates Plummet as Industry Points to Effectiveness of Copyright Notice-and-Notice System", on Michael Geist's blog, is a striking example of a headline that calls out "explain me!" Is it causation, correlation, ligtigation, education? (Katpat to Chris Torrero for spotting this piece).  Elsewhere, PatLit reports on Luxembourg signing up for the Unified Patent Court Agreement [small ratification, no-one hurt ..., says Merpel] and also on patents for underwired bras and a pair of infringements. There's plenty on the 1709 Blog too, including Ben Challis's latest CopyKat round-up and Andy Johnstone writing on the Fall and Rise of Touch Sensitive.