IPKat

IPKat is a blog in English. It covered the latest developments in patent copyright and trademark law, two cats ( the IPKat and Merpel your partner ) are commented. The blog often has this an ironic style, the articles are usually provided with commentating icon images, which often contain cats. This blog has existed since 2003 and was founded by the British lawyers Jeremy Philips and Ilanah Simon. According to the Dictionary of Intellectual Property Law of 2011 is at IPKat the doyenne of blogs on intellectual property. As for the number of readers and subscribers, in Europe it is the most popular English special blog on intellectual property.

Content

The blog covers all areas of intellectual property law and copyright law, focusing on legal developments in the United Kingdom and the European Union. Guest contributions to the law of the United States of America t be written. The comments are normally held in a style in which the IPKat current events and legal developments referenced, while Merpel this capricious commented. Until August 2012 so over 7000 products have emerged.

Authors and audiences

IPKat is read by lawyers, students, professors and judges. In May 2007, it had 25,000 visitors a month and 1,000 subscribers to the e- mail newsletter. Until August 2012, this rose to 7,000 subscribers of the newsletter. This blog belongs here to a handful of European blogs that were able to repeatedly place in the top 100 blog list of the American Bar Association. In May 2012, wrote David Brophy, Merpel, Jeremy Phillips, Eleonora Rosati, Darren Smyth, Annsley Merelle Ward and Neil J. Wilkof for the blog. It is the solid team of six regular writers, complemented each for half a year to three guest authors.

History

Both authors were working at the time as a university lecturer in Intellectual Property at Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute at Queen Mary, University of London, and were offended that their students had to learn with outdated texts. They founded the blog in order to have a source of current developments in the law of intellectual property. Over time, Johanna Gibson, also a researcher and lawyer David Pearce came in addition to the team.

Although the blog was only created to provide students with knowledge, his sphere of activity has now increased. The operators have increased their awareness in the legal system significantly, in addition, they were able to generate revenue through licensing more content and the holding of seminars on intellectual property law.

According to information from the blog has never been sued until 2012 due to copyright infringement, but will automatically protected content from the network, if the owner requests it. Two threats action for defamation and contempt of court were withdrawn.