Monday meanderings

The IPKat has just been rejoicing to read the first annual Nicholas Weston (Australian Trade Marks Law Blog) "Tattooed Brands" Global Survey, conducted by phone during May 2009 among 20 tattoo businesses in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. 

Right: kitty cat tattoo from Paradise Tattoo Gathering

The survey asked tattooists whether they had ever tattooed a registered trade marked brand or logo on to someone's body and if so, which ones [trade marks, not bodies] are popular, what age groups get them and whether the recipient was drunk or affected by drugs at the time [this is the second time in as many weeks that IP abuse has been related to drug-taking: see also the Pirate Bay decision, in Ars Technica].  For the record, the top ten brands were as follows: 

1. Harley Davidson; 2. Nike; 3. AFL (Australian Rules) club logos; 4. Vegemite; 5. VB; 6. Disney characters (various); 7. Holden; 8. Ford; 9. Fox/Alpinestars (motorcross); 10. Triple J (radio).

The IPKat's friend, IP lawyer and fellow blogger Peter Groves is running again to raise money for the charity Against Breast Cancer.  Says Peter, "I am hoping to get support from lots of INTA friends and others".  You can sponsor him via his Just Giving page here.


Down in the depths of the distant Antipodes, another of the IPKat's friends, Elena Szentivanyi (of Henry Hughes) brings tidings of the long-awaited legislation to replace New Zealand's Patents Act 1953. The new Bill received its first reading in Parlaiment last week (5 May 2009) and has now been referred to the Commerce Select Committee for public submissions (see here). The full text of the Patents Bill together with the explanatory note can be viewed here. The Patents Act 1953 is based on the long-since repealed UK Patents Act 1949 [the Act the infant IPKat grew to love] and the new Bill will make many changes. A summary of the most significant changes proposed by the Bill appeared on the IPKat weblog last August.  Elena kindly adds:

"I agree with the comment on the SPC blog that a notable omission from the Bill is any provision relating to supplemetary protection certificates for pharmaceutical or agrochemical substances".

 The closing date for submissions to the select committee is 2 July 2009. You can make your own submissions by clicking here, or you can contribute to the Henry Hughes submission by emailing the firm here.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has announced today that the number of international trade mark registrations under the WIPO-administered Madrid system for the international registration of marks topped the one million mark when Austrian “eco” company Grüne Erde, which specializes in natural wood, textile and cosmetic products, registered its mark this month (full press release here). According to WIPO,

"Trademark registrations often mirror evolving consumer tastes as companies work to strengthen their market position. In this case, the millionth trademark registration is a “green” brand, reflecting a growing environmental awareness among the general public and the business community".

What a curious coincidence, says the IPKat, that the millionth mark is a 'green' mark, given that World Intellectual Property Day this year just happened to have a green theme.  The Kat is happy to buy a pint of good old English ale, or an appropriate equivalent, for whichever person within WIPO tells him how the millionth mark was chosen, whether this was indeed the one millionth and, if not, which mark really was? 

Monday meanderings

With some trepidation, IPKat team member Jeremy is taking the plunge and entering into the world of Twitter. All twittered content will be strictly IP-related. You can follow it here: http://twitter.com/Ipkat. If nothing interesting initially emerges, please be patient: it takes time for a Kat to screw up its courage where these new technologies are concerned ...


Reminder: registrations are now coming in for the first-ever CLT one-day conference, "Intellectual Property in the Education Sector: meeting the challenges of changing times". This event takes place on Thursday 19 March, in Central London. You can read the programme, which has the booking arrangements, here. The conference competition, for which the prize is free registration (worth £495 + VAT -- and with a decent lunch thrown in), is to compose a haiku in the traditional Japanese style, connecting the subjects of intellectual property and education. There are two further conditions: (i) no references must be made to cats or Kats and (ii) there are to be absolutely no arguments as to what constitutes a haiku. The deadline is Sunday 8 March, midnight (Greenwich Mean Time) and entries should be emailed to the IPKat here with the subject line "Educomp".  Some of the early entries are hilarious; let's have yours too.



Above: three of the speakers from Trade Marks on the Downturn (left to right): Stephen Reese, Neil Wilkof, Larry Cohen

Last week the Trade Marks on the Downturn seminar drew an attentive audience of over 60 participants to Hardwicke Building, to discuss various problems faced by trade mark owners and their licensees during the current economic difficulties. The IPKat had hoped to publish a report on this seminar, but he was right in the middle of everything and didn't have time to take notes. He hopes to publish all the speakers' PowerPoints, but the only set he has received so far is "Trade Mark Licences & Termination", a review by Stephen Reese (Olswang) of the issues as seen from both the licensor's and licensee's perspective. If you'd like sight of these PowerPoints, please email IPKat team blogger Jeremy here.


The IPKat is pleased to inform his readers that the Intellectual Property Office in the UK has just launched a new free online service to help "artists, inventors, sole traders and small and medium sized businesses identify, protect and commercially exploit their Intellectual Property (IP)". This is the IP Healthcheck, a diagnostic tool which is aimed at helping lay users discover (i) if they have IP to protect, (ii) whether it's theirs or someone else's, (iii) how to protect it -- and whether it's worth protecting, and (iv) how to exploit that IP commercially. You can try it out here; feedback should be emailed here.