Weekend miscellany

This story amused me: how an artist in the US registerd the trade mark "Freedom of Expression", pretended to use his rights to stop others using the phrase, then (in a nice final ironic twist) was refused when he asked a newspaper for permission to reproduce an article about his antics. All a bit long ago, but only just blogged by Susan and Kurt.

Here is what one blogger, Scruffy Dan, describes as "the most absurd IP lawsuit I have ever heard of" - quite an accolade: there is a great deal of competition, but this one is right up with the others.

There are several items on the Web about the US administration keeping a new anticounterfeiting treaty secret for reasons of national security. Cory Doctorow says loads of people from "giant copyright companies" (what a concept) are privy to it. And so, it seems, is most of the rest of the world.

Patent and trade mark filings are down in the US, it seems: and, as Stanley fish might say, it's (probvably) a good thing too. WIPO also reported a drop in International trade mark filings - or was it a slowdown in the relentless and unsustainable growth?