Databases Galore : Patent and Trademark Due Diligence Made Easy

The competition is hotting up between the Patent Offices of the world to produce even better and more accessible databases. Today the UK join with a beta version of  IPSUM a UK patent register that offers access to the documents issued by the Patent Office during the prosecution of recent applications. It also allows easy access to the Espacenet records of citations.

The EPO has also recently updated the EPO Register  and made its alert service (now called Register Alert instead of WebRegMT) much more accessible. The EPO show you the whole file including the correspondence from the agent. Also don't miss the tabs along the top that allow some very sophisticated searches to be carried out directly on the register.


The OHIM have been keeping up too. TMView is celebrating its first anniversary and although not yet comprehensive it is the best way to search for free across multiple country databases. French data is promised soon and we would like see German data so that there is a good prospect of spotting most of the big issues with a prospective new mark in one operation. You won't be able to clear a mark with this alone but you can certainly eliminate some items off a list.

The second OHIM effort is eSearch Plus Beta which combines the ability to search Community Trademarks and Community Registered Designs.  This really is a Beta version and some of the results are not up to date or complete. Representations were missing last week. If you want to see how it should work, here is their nice demo.

See the Origin of the search result. 

 

To complete the novelties we must mention the Global Brands Database which is a SERIOUSLY misleading title because it means Madrid registrations, International Emblems protected by the Paris Convention and Appellations of Origin, which leaves a lot of the globe left out. Moreover its only fair to say that the Emblems are the only thing with anything like global protection.  This tool has some amazing features including the ability to see results shown on a Map. The illustration on the right is for the origin of everything in the database. You could spend all day with this database discovering the most fascinating facts.

Unreliable Evidence: IP law debate

A class of Bears learning about IP

On 30 March the BBC  broadcast a radio programme on Intellectual Property Law in their Unreliable Evidence series hosted by Clive Anderson. You can listen on the iPlayer. A cast of IP experts was in the studio. Michael Fysh, Charlotte May, counsel, Stephen Rowan from the IPO who apparently now rejoices in the title of Deputy Director of the mysterious Copyright and  IP Enforcement Directorate and Paul Stevens from Olswang.

Although the programme was clearly inspired by the Hargreaves Review, the debate singularly failed to highlight potential areas of reform. Indeed during  the section on copyright (16 minutes in) the group seemed placidly to accept that 70 years post mortem was the right term for copyright.  It was left to Michael Fysh to eventually insert a dissenting voice. Clive Anderson - extremely well briefed - made several provocative assertions suggesting there might be copyright in program formats, designer clothing and domain names.

The programme was successful in showing that IP law is diverse and complex. It does not make a good starting point for any business listener but its a worthwhile listen if you are in the business, if only to spot the errors. Perhaps the BBC can commission Clive to produce a series of more educational programmes on the separate areas of IP.

The programme began with a brief introduction piece from Baroness Wilcox. She hit the wrong note for a discussion on whether the law has the balance right,  by drawing attention to a windfall her business had made from an unused trademark  (4 minutes in).

Its great to hear popular radio about legal issues. Keep at it IPO.

The Life of a Regulator

It's all about organisation

The morning's email brought a copy of the recently published Annual Report 2010 from IPReg - the regulator of most patent and trademark attorneys. It is one of the smaller regulators that come under the aegis of the Legal Services Board. 
These smaller professions have proudly boasted that they hardly ever have any complaints and could self regulate very well before this new regime came into force. Therefore it comes as something of a surprise that the report indicates that there have been far more requests for guidance on conduct by attorneys in relation to the activities of others attorneys than from the public. They say:
"We are concerned that we should not to be used as leverage in what may be, essentially, a commercial dispute e.g. over “ownership” of client following.
Whatever the source of the complaint, however, we are obliged to follow the same processes and this is a cost to the profession as a whole."

In short, if you want to keep the fees down, don't come to IPReg to resolve your restrictive covenant problems. Frankly, it is unprofessional for a partnership not to be able to manage its business discreetly when it is necessary for staff and partners to be reduced. Yes the recession is really hitting the IT profession now as decisions to put off maintaining intellectual property can no longer be delayed by our clients. As the EPO office actions become more contentious and the Appeal Board decisions later or arbitrary, it's harder to justify the investment.  Its better for the country if our clients stay in business even if we don't.

Alternative Business Structures (ABS)

The Report also indicates that one of the issues facing IPReg this year is whether it should be an ABS regulator. Personally, I was surprised that the Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority had so much difficulty in deciding that they would regulate ABS. Neil Rose covers the decision very well in his Guardian article. Surely it is now increasingly clear that lawyers are good at practising law but bad at running businesses and that the law like every other business should be professionally managed. In short, it seems to me an ABS is the only legal business a consumer or a business should want to enter into a relationship with. Of course, dealing with a SOLO practitioner or a barrister is the exception because you are buying a personal service. Personally, I hope that IPReg will take the plunge and become an ABS regulator. Otherwise I foresee Patent and Trademark attorneys once more joining the great unregulated and the British Standard won't really help.

IP practice and recruitment: always a good time for musical chairs?

Via PRWeb I've just been reading the always entertaining and well-expressed thoughts of the eponymous Pete Fellows (Fellows and Associates), under the title "UK Intellectual Property Sector Shifts Focus, Says New Review". Pete forecasts "times of change for the private practice Intellectual Property market in the UK". In general terms, the market for recruitment and career moves is looking up, though good candidates for new positions are a bit timid when it comes to contemplating an upward move.

Pete may be right, but I feel that recruitment consultants tend to end up with the same conclusion that there has never been a better time to change jobs, whether the market is booming or contracting. It's just the reasons that keep changing. Thoughts, anyone?

Hargreaves and the SME Litigants

Not many IP Cases get this level of Publicity.
(c) Ben Sutherland 2008

As the 4 March deadline for the submission of evidence to the Hargreaves IP Review, one senses that there may be a bit of concern that real evidence is a bit thin on the ground.  A meeting has been convened on the evening of  23 February at which ITMA and CIPA have been inviting members to fill their respective 30 places. If you pay to be a corporate member of either august institution and want an invite get on to your favoured one at once, since neither is advertising the event on their website.
There are also supposed to be 30 places for SME representatives, who will therefore be outnumbered.  I wonder who is arranging their delegation but I suspect we can expect some criticism about the cost of litigation. It is not reported whether solicitors are invited but since it is in Freshfield's offices, there may be some and so it may not be too easy to say only they are the only expensive ones.
What are the changes in the law that could make litigation more accessible. The Patents County Court looks promising and if No Win No Fee offers are available from litigators, those with strong cases should be able to find representation. Defendants may find it harder to get representation that way. Hopefully no-one will be wasting too much more time talking about insurance. Perhaps Hargreaves can rely on the Amedee Turner report to the European Commission as evidence that that is a dead end.

Groves' Dictionary: available at last!

As a contributor to this blog, Peter Groves is far too modest to blow his own trumpet, but this missive crossed my path the other day and it seemed too good for me not to share it with SOLO IP readers:

"From 1-click and the ActionAid Chip to zwart maken, Peter Groves’ Dictionary of Intellectual Property Law' (Edward Elgar, 28 February 2011, £70) provides IP professionals and other interested parties with over 1,000 definitions covering most of the expressions that they might encounter. 

Dubbed by one lawyer ‘the Dr Johnson of intellectual property’, Groves’ work is not merely informative but also entertaining, erudite and occasionally acerbic.  [Perhaps it would be fairer to say that Dr Johnson was the Peter Groves of lexicography ...] ‘Compulsively readable’, wrote another reviewer, in an email headed ‘Darn you, Peter Groves’, complaining that he was supposed to be studying a patent specification. Law books don’t have to be dry-as-dust, nor do they have to be for lawyers only [I like to think of the oeuvre of John Grisham as 'law books', at least so far as work avoidance rituals are concerned -- and they're not dry]. 

You may not believe this, but patent law just got sexy,’ wrote The Lawyer back in 2004, commenting on a couple of cases in what we then called the House of Lords. To lawyers working in this area, what was hard to believe was that the rest of the world hadn’t already noticed. Compared to most other areas of law, intellectual property law as a whole – copyright and trade marks as well as patents – has been sexy for a long, long time [can we make an exception for supplementary protection certificates and semiconductor topography rights, which defy any categorisation as being sexy?]. 

One reason for its sexiness is the way government and business have embraced the idea that IP is valuable and important.[It's not just a caressing embrace; the sexiness of "three strikes" sounds decidely sado-masochistic] In our everyday lives we engage with IP every day, downloading copyright material from the Internet legally (or not), going for the branded goods in the supermarket (or not) and doing thousands of other little things that involve it. 

Yet to say that there is widespread ignorance about intellectual property is a massive understatement. What is said and written on the subject is more urban myth than solid legal understanding. Ordinary people – those who aren’t IP professionals [and the occasional judge ...?] – often have a hard time telling patents from trademarks from copyright. Many lawyers don’t know the difference, either. There’s no dictionary of intellectual property law to tell them what the words and expressions mean… until now. Peter Groves, a solicitor with 30 years’ experience of intellectual property, several books and many articles to his credit, and hundreds of hours of lecturing under his belt, has spent much of the last few years putting one together. 

Intellectual property has a vast, perplexing and diverse vocabulary, and this enriching Dictionary provides a starting point for understanding new concepts and crafting precise definitions to meet the needs of a particular case. Not only are new words and phrases being coined as technology changes and the law follows, but also the international scope of intellectual property means that IP lawyers will encounter foreign words and phrases. 

With over 1,000 expressions defined clearly and entertainingly, this book should be the first reference point to understanding intellectual property terminology. It will be particularly helpful to practitioners when they encounter expressions they have not seen before which they need to understand the true meaning and definition of. Students finding unfamiliar terminology and concepts will also appreciate the instant explanation available from this essential resource. ...".

We hope that Peter has organised a special discount for sole and small IP practitioners, who will get a particular pleasure reading it while they wait for the next piece of serious client work to come it ...

PS you can buy it from the publisher for just £63 here.

How to Protect Consumers and Regulation - Titles and the Unregulated

Having read the various comments in response to the post The Great Unregulated (why so many anonymous?) I think the issue is not whether there are regulated firms that provide poor value, or unregulated ones that are excellent, so much as whether the area of advice is important enough for society to ring fence in some way to protect consumers. For example, nobody would dispute that only doctors should be let loose on the public to provide certain types of services. So, that is the question, what types of legal services should be reserved activities that only lawyers, patent attorneys, trade mark attorneys, or whatever other discipline is permitted to provide?

Consumer protection?

If the aim of the Legal Services Act is in part, consumer protection, then these sort of questions need to be considered. Fine distinctions between trade mark attorney, and registered trade mark attorney, or trade mark agent, are not going to be easy for the public to understand. The question is, should the public be protected against the clerical assistant who worked for a short stint in a law firm, and who then sets himself up in business as a trade mark agent because they can’t find any other work? Their knowledge may be miniscule, but it will be greater than that of the lay public, so they may well be able to attract work if they price themselves cheaply enough. Does society think that trade mark registration is important enough to become a reserved activity? What about web design, search engine optimisation, marketing and many other areas where anyone can set up in business…. with little experience, and pick up the ropes as they go?

The Unregulated

What is unhelpful in my opinion is the rivalry between professional bodies, and all the protected titles that are devised in order to mark out a particular group as the ones who should be consulted above all others for that particular area of work. Surely, other regulated entities are not the real problem. If the people who should not be allowed to mislead the public by use of titles are the unregulated sector, (possibly those people with little background in law, who may be passing themselves off as suitable to provide legal services), then let's find solutions to stop some of their unregulated activities.

If we thought trade mark registration work should be a reserved activity, then it might be relatively easy to prevent certain people filing trade marks as agents for others. They might still find a role providing help to the public to draft their own applications, but at least their limited capacity to act would mark them out as a different type of trade mark agent. But in the absence of some radical measure like this to distinguish between providers, what is the point of reserving use of titles, if there would be some other title that the unregulated would be able to use in order to provide their desired service?

Protecting Titles

In the meantime, we are in the ridiculous situation where confusion reigns over who may or may not call themselves trade mark attorneys. For example, recently, after verifying on this post that there appeared to be an error in the IPO’s booklet Choosing the Right IP Adviser I wrote to the IPO to point out that solicitors could also call themselves trade mark attorneys and could they please correct the error. To my astonishment this week I received the following reply from ‘Debbie’ of the iPO:

Thank you very much for your feedback on the 'Choosing the Right IP Adviser' booklet which has been forwarded to me from Paolo Senese. Please accept my apologies for the delay in response but I have been absent due to a bereavement.

I can confirm that the point you have raised re: page 7 about Trade Mark Attorneys is being looked at. This issue has also been raised by another Attorney.

The text in the booklet was taken from the CIPA website relating to Trade Mark Attorneys and cleared internally by TM colleagues, but as you rightly state this does not tie in with Section 84 of the Trade Marks Act 1984. Thus, "trade mark agent" and "trade mark attorney" remain open for anyone to use.

I have been discussing with CIPA and I understand that the Protected Titles Committee recently considered the matter and was making a report to Council on 5th January in which it is suggested that the public would be misled now by anyone using the term if they are not on the Register of Trade Mark Attorneys. The reason for this is that the treatment of trade mark attorney is now in all other respects analogous with the treatment of patent attorney and with the "Register of Trade Mark Attorneys" now in place the public is likely to assume that someone using the title is entered on the Register. Thus the Committee is proposing that Council should issue guidance to Fellows that they should not use the title unless they are also entered on the Register. Whether that will be accepted by Council I do not know and am trying to establish the outcome of the report with CIPA.

CIPA has confirmed that they will not be updating their website until the outcome is known with the view that I would amend the publication at that time.

I will be more than happy to provide you with an update when I hear anything further from CIPA.

Thank you for your interest in the IPO publications and if you have any further feedback in due course this would be most welcome.

I was amazed that the IPO seem to think that CIPA have the right to make changes except possibly with regard to their own members. If CIPA wish to issue guidance to Fellows that they should not use the title Trade Mark Attorney unless they are also entered on the Register, I doubt this would have effect on anybody else’s use of this term. It's also surprising that the CIPA website has this statement about the term Trade Mark Attorneys. What happened to consultations with other interested parties?

While I agree with CIPA that all these terms are confusingly similar, I do object as a solicitor, to them effectively trying to deprive solicitors of the use of the title. It speaks volumes about the problems that need to be addressed. I read recently that there is a realisation that greater consideration is needed as to the activities that should be reserved and what Alternative Business Structures (ABS) will be able to provide once legal services are deregulated. Otherwise, consumers are in danger of being misled.

While Jeremy’s suggestion that some further research is needed in this area is correct, it clearly needs to focus on both regulated and unregulated IP providers.