BILETA 2009 Conference

Host to BILETA 2009 was the relatively new Winchester University, with their fledgling first year intake of LLB students.  Organised by Helen James, it was well attended, with a good number of both old and new faces, and with over 50 papers , the main problem was deciding which parallel stream to go to!  The weather was also very obliging, especially for the dinner reception and tour of the cathedral grounds.

The BILETA AGM saw a number of new faces elected to the executive committee, but more excitingly, the 2010 conference was announced as being in Vienna, to be organised by Erich Schweighofer in association with the Wiener Zentrum für Rechtsinformatik  and the OCG Austrian Computer Society.  The date will most likely be 29-30 March 2010, the week before the Easter weekend holidays.

The first keynote was given by Jeremy Phillips, an Intellectual Property Consultant with Olswang Solicitors and Research Director of the Intellectual Property Institute.  His apt title ‘Apples, Oranges and BlackBerries’ made for an early morning fruit salad – although I’m sure the final slide contained blueberries and was devoid of any blackberries!  I’m certainly too young to remember the BBC acorn, Cherry, Tangerine or Apricot Computers, but Jeremy suggested that the use of fruit resonates with the cycle of development, maturity, decay and rebirth that both plant life and technology endure.

His slides will, apparently, be available at the IPKat blog along with extensive coverage of other IP issues and, of course, some feline friends!

In sum, the main points were:

Example	Format	Fruitflies (i.e. blocks)	Issues
Apples	Convergence	Brick wall – cannot expand into a patented area	Apple computers v Apple Corp – neither foresaw the convergence of computers and music
Oranges	Specialising	Eggs in one basket – vulnerable to a narrow market	Orange Mobile v EasyMobile – does a similar corporate colour suggest franchising?
Blackberries	Delayed Entry	‘Trolling’ by patent holders who want a profit slice	Patents on handheld keyboards and other gadgety things