A couple of quick questions

1. Posting to the members-only Obscure IP Group on LinkedIn, Kayanne Horgan has been speculating as to whether trade mark attorneys might expect to see a surge in registrations once the new Icann gTLD program is launched in January? I'm not sure whether this is a reference to trade mark registrations (hooray!) or gTLD registrations (boo!), but in either case it would be good to know whether a flood -- or even a trickle -- of registration work might be expected to materialise, in which case readers of this blog are warmly advised not to book their summer holidays for January, when everything's a bit cheaper.

2. The IPKat has been mewing about the problem of costs orders for relatively small sums that remain unpaid by unsuccessful opponents at OHIM and indeed in the UK Intellectual Property Office. Some readers have posted comments suggesting that costs should be scrapped entirely, while voters in the Kat's poll -- who were not given the option of scrapping costs orders -- currently favour requiring opponents in office proceedings to be made to give security for costs. Thoughts, anyone?