World IP Day 2011 approaches

The Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been celebrating World Intellectual Property Day (WIPD) since 2000, and 26 April was the date when the Convention establishing WIPO originally came into force in 1970.

WIPO set up World IP Day to address the gap between people’s awareness of IP and its relevance to their lives. This year’s theme, “Designing the Future”, reminds us all of the need to keep our brands fresh, properly positioned and protected for the future. Some recent and topical items illustrate this.

Red Cross capers

In January 2011 the Scottish press carried the story about Dean Park, who played “Nurse Ima Poltice” in the “Magical Adventures of Robin Hood” at the Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow. His costume included a pinny, upon which was emblazoned a large red cross, to which the Geneva Red Cross objected most strongly. A green cross was substituted and everyone lived happily ever after!

We have all come across this Geneva Convention complication, and this is why most office first aiders have a green cross sign on their desks.

The April Royal wedding

World IP Day this year is during Royal wedding week and most of us will have Friday 29 April off work. So I do hope that the copyright position of the Royal wedding photographs of Prince William and Kate Middleton has been properly designed and protected.

When Prince William turned 18 in 2000, St James Palace verbally commissioned photographs of Prince William from a photographer for sharing with the media. Some of the photos were released early, there were copyright complications, and the Royal aide concerned had to resign.

The Burns IP connection

I presented an Intellectual Property Update to the In-house Lawyers Group of the Law Society of Scotland in Edinburgh on 25 January and managed to find a few IP Robert Burns connections.

Burns died in 1796, so he is well out of copyright, but extant UK registered trade marks include “Tam O’Shanter” (hone stone for grinding and polishing), “the Burns Bunnet” (headgear), “The Robert Burns Humanitarian Award” (awarded posthumously this year to Linda Norgrove for her aid work in Afghanistan), “The World Burns Centre”, “The Burns Experience”, and “Robbie Burns” (Scotch whisky).

In 2009, the 250th anniversary of Burns’ birth and the year of Homecoming Scotland, our national poet became the first person to feature on specially designed commemorative bottles of Coca-Cola in the UK.

Scottish event

The Law Society of Scotland and Faculty of Advocates are arranging the fourth annual lunchtime World IP Day conference in Edinburgh on Thursday 21 April 2011, in the Mackenzie Building, Old Assembly Close, High Street. Roisin Higgins, advocate, and I will chair the event, jointly sponsored by the Scottish Society for Computers and Law and Hewlett-Packard Ltd. Ken Green from Metis Partners is a confirmed key speaker; full conference details will be confirmed on the Faculty and Society websites shortly. Please pencil the date in your diaries.