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New Kat on the block c/o https://www.coolstuff.com/Kidults-Kitty-Blocks This Kat had the pleasure of attending IR Global ’s event on IP and blockchain this morning. A select gathering of IP experts from around the world sat down in a London hotel and considered the merits of blockchain and what it could mean for the (intellectual property) future. What is blockchain? The most well known example of a blockchain is Bitcoin , a form of cryptocurrency based on a particular blockchain but there are any more options. For the uninitiated , blockchain is a form of "distributed ledger technology". This essentially means that it is a database which is simultaneously available via a network to any number of computers in the same format at the same time. Rather than having a centralised authority stating whether or not a particular change to the database is accurate or "true," the accuracy of a transaction is determined via some pre-agreed method of consensus between the compu...

Take a tour of the IP blogosphere with IPKat! Highlights this week include a series of articles on the impact of brexit on the patent system, a commentary on whether blockchain can reasonably be used to protect trade secrets and a case of invalid priority in the US.  Trademarks The Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice (JIPLP) provides an "Authors' Take" by Daniel R. Bereskin, Q.C. on  Likelihood of Confusion: The Irrational Basis of Trademark Protection . Is the “likelihood of confusion” (“LOC”) test, as in the view of Professor Roger Bone, a "mess"? Likelihood of confusion? Patents Kat friends Matthias Lamping and Hanns Ullrich of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, have recently published two articles on the impact of Brexit on the unitary patent system and the unified patent judiciary: " The European Union’s Patent System after Brexit: Disunited, but Unified?" and " The Unified Patent Court, and How Brexit Br...