Friday fantasies

"This is such a one-sided 'debate' due to IPKAT censorship of contradictory comments". This extraordinary statement was posted by an anonymous commenter today at 11:32:00, referring to the string of comments received in the wake of the Communique issued this morning by the Administrative Council of the European Patent Office, posted by this blogger and without comment here.  For the record, Merpel has herself posted the following at 12:09:00 GMT:
"Merpel has moderated all the comments on this thread this morning. She has not had reason to censor, disapprove or not post any comment.  So the debate is one-sided because the comments have tended to be reflecting the same viewpoint. ...

As it happens, Merpel would greatly welcome an alternative viewpoint in this debate. If you (or any other anon) has submitted a contrary viewpoint, please do so again and it will DEFINITELY be approved unless it is unpublishable". 
To remind readers, this weblog does welcome serious comments, whether they agree with the positions taken by the IPKat and Merpel or not. This blog does not however welcome gratuitous abuse of bloggers or fellow comment-posters and it does not encourage obscenity.  This particular debate has been unanimously cynical of the Administrative Council's motives and actions; commenters are disgusted by what they see as an attempt to sweep matters under the carpet,


Forthcoming events.  With the New Year break approaching, you may be wondering what's in store for you in the coming year. Well, the IPKat's Forthcoming Events list is the shortest it has been for a while, since there are no further conferences and seminars listed for 2014 and the 2015 list is still pretty short.  Good news is that, being short, it will take less time to check it out. so why don't you?


This very afternoon the IPKat's friends in the Anti-Counterfeiting Group and British Brands Group launch the Manifesto for Brands. This Manifesto outlines what brands already deliver for the UK and proposes a six-point plan on how they can deliver more:

  • Place brands firmly within the UK economic policy 
  • Provide the environment for brand growth 
  • Stop the trade in fakes 
  • Encourage companies to invest in brands 
  • Help people to make informed buying decisions 
  • Allow communication with consumers 

The Manifesto can be downloaded from the BBG's website here.


Around the weblogs.  Fellow Kat Darren's post earlier this week, "Hurray for judicial sense on product by process claims - Birss triumphs in Hospira v Genentech", has attracted a welcome and gratifying degree of attention from our patent-oriented readers, showing that the patent fraternity is interested in matters other than office politics; this blogpost has even received a follow-up from the same author. Meanwhile Katfriend Suleman Ali has written his take on the same case for PatLit, here,  Moving from patents to pirates, if you thought you'd heard the last of The Pirate Bay, well, maybe you soon will: news from Sweden appears on the 1709 Blog here via Ben Challis.  On Afro-IP, Caroline Ncube reports on the latest news of South Africa's plans for amending its plant breeders' rights legislation.  On IP Draughts, Mark Anderson lists 10 tips for dealing with non-performing licensees [this Kat has a few more, but they're not as constructive ...]. Finally, the Class 99 design law blog chronicles a further recent refusal of the Intellectual Property Enteprise Court, England and Wales, to grant "bonus damages".
Friday fantasies Friday fantasies Reviewed by Jeremy on Friday, December 12, 2014 Rating: 5

6 comments:

  1. I have commented many times on this blog. Most comments are posted, but I find comments that tend to be critical, directly or indirectly, of the original poster (not of the patenly-o type) tend to go amiss. I know that sometimes my postings do not appear because I failed to prove I was not a robot and closed the box without realizing, others I guess may have seen lost somewhere else along the way, but since the ipkat censorship assertion several months ago, I am finding more posts going missing as described.

    If posts do go amiss for technical reasons are the ipkat administrators aware of this problem, and how are we to judge whether the censorship line has been crossed?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The censorship line HAS been crossed.

    Try a simple post merely pointing this out and watch it evaporate.

    This strikes a subtle difference between whether a blog has a right to censor (it does, and I do not think that anyone thinks otherwise) and the natural fallout that occurs because engaging in that right sets up the (legitimate) accusation of "speaking out of both sides of one's mouth."

    Personally - being from the States - I "get" that my sharper views may be more likely to be censored in a forum that is not as rigorous about the right to speak out. What should be evident though to those controlling this blog (and often appears NOT to be so), is that a blog built as it is with the Kats having claws and sharp tongues WILL be considered duplicitous (whether intending to be or not) when it acts to curb any claw or tongue directed against the blog.

    This is NOT a matter that the blog has the authority or capability of censorship. This is a natural fallout of the exercise of censorship.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have posted much comments in latest days such as information from enlarge appeal board and trying to get letter to administrating council. No comment is ever put in the blog. No one comment. Is strange I think because much comments are more critic.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alsi I had a comment which was never posted. It described what I had seen in the EPO underground parking after being invited there by an examiner after Oral Proceedings. I guess it didn't meet the "bon ton" of the poor examiners suffering under the present President. Why does the kat not like such other views ? Perhaps because he depends on the good relationship with examiners to have access to confidential documents, and post a "BREAKING NEWS" article ?

    ReplyDelete
  5. OMG, please let us know. We need to know what happened in that parking lot. Did he offer oral s.x ? Smoke hashish ? Ask for bribes ? I am sure your contribution will help us understand the actual mess.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @henk

    Let me elucidate:
    - 2 Bentleys
    - 3 Rolls-Royces
    - 2 Nissan GT-R's, of which one is apparently a one-off in the world... the owner is a programmer at the EPO.
    - 1 Aston-Martin
    - Several Maserati's
    - BMW M5's, M6's and M3's.
    - A handful of Porsche 911's.

    I can imagine more than one delegation raising an eye-brow when seeing such display of luxury...

    ReplyDelete

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