NIPC Law

Congratulations to Professor Jeremy Phillips on his appointment as the first Dean of the newly formed Law Faculty of the  University of Botswana . Law had previously been taught at the University to master's level within the Faculty of Social Science.   The new Law Faculty will be the sixth Faculty of the University,  One of Jeremy's first responsibilities will be to give the keynote speech to the WIPO regional conference on  traditional knowledge, genetic resources and traditional cultural expressions/folklore   which is due to take place in Gabarone   next month. This conference is sponsored jointly by the D epartment for International Development and and the UK  Intellectual Property Office.    Commenting on his appointment, Dave Morgan of the UK IPO said  "Jeremy is one of the few international academic lawyers with a genuine interest in Africa  as is evidenced by his participation in the afro-ip blog . We're expecting great things from the conference and great thi

A harmless tradition of intellectual property bloggers at this time of the year is the April Fools Spoof. On 1 April 2006 Jeremy and Illanah announced " The WIPO Space Probe" .  The same day I announced the  removal of the Patents Court to an industrial estate in Newport  which apparently landed Miles Rees into terrible trouble with the Comptroller. Having recently appeared as counsel at the  Syddfa Batent  which is palatial compared to Bouverie Street and much more convenient to reach from the North and generated a photo ID security pass for me which was really flattering I am not sure that such a move would be altogether a bad idea. My favourite all time spoof is Stephen Albainy-Jenei's  "Google Inc to Acquire Patent Baristas for $1.3 Billion"   on 1 April 2006 which sounded nothing life as far fetched then as it does now.   My April Fool's post for 2007 was the  adoption of the Community Patent Regulation  which no doubt sounded at the time only sligh

This song from the Life of Brian chorused and whistled by about several hundred people in Middle Temple Hall brought Sir Hugh Laddie's memorial service to an end yesterday evening. Although a sad occasion it was also a celebration of a life well lived.    There were tributes from the many different sides of that life - Mark Platts-Mills QC from his chambers, Tony Willoughby from the firm he joined upon leaving the bench, Malcolm Grant from the University College that hosts the Institute of Brands and Innovation Law  and, of course, his children, For me the most moving of the tributes was Sir Robin Jacob's. Delivered fluently and with humour I am sure I detected a break in his voice checking his emotions. I am sure everyone shared his thoughts and for the first time in 20 or so years I actually warmed to Sir Robin. It appears that Sir Hugh's permanent memorial will be a chair at UCL and Sir Robin will be leading the fundraising. Pretty appropriate IMHO,