IP Draughts is back from a very demanding week on a 1930s superyacht in the Mediterranean. At one point, IP Draughts found himself explaining the employee compensation provisions of sections 40-41 of the Patents Act 1977 to a fellow guest while sipping a pina colada. It turned out that the fellow guest was an inventor who was in the process of making a patent application on behalf of his employer. Just too fatiguant, darling.
And then there was the Olympic opening ceremony. It was nice to see Bradley Wiggins (winner of the Tour de France cycle race) in his yellow jumper without any of that nasty branding on it. The ceremony featured Sir Kenneth Branagh dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Curiously, the ceremony omitted any dramatisation of Brunel’s campaign to abolish the patent system.
On IP Draughts’ desk are the proofs of a brochure for a forthcoming postgraduate course on IP transactions. With any luck, this will be finalised in the next few days. The course will be held at UCL from 11th to 15th February next year.
Also on his desk are the proofs of a chapter on patent licensing, written by IP Draughts, that will be included in a multi-author book on licensing, edited by Professor de Werra of the University of Geneva, and due to be published soon, we hope.
Time to catch up on some client work. A more substantive posting will follow soon.
Mr Pettifog
Mark Anderson
Paul Maclennan
Stephen Brett
Victor Warner
