CongratulationsThe IPKat congratulates Paul Maier (right) on his appointment as President of the Boards of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market for another five years. Paul, a native of Strasbourg (where he was born in 1958) has served as Head of OHIM's Designs Division and is known to be a nice guy.
Journal of Business Law
The first issue of Sweet & Maxwell's Journal of Business Law for 2006 has now been published. The IPKat notes an interesting article by Hazel Fleming (Lecturer in Law, University of Stirling) entitled 'An End to Brandsharing?', in which she analyses current European legislation to suppress the practice of using tobacco brands on non-tobacco products (somewhat inelegantly termed brandsharing, or brand-stretching). Hazel warns that the tobacco companies may yet find ways around even the stiffest restrictions, if the experience of France is anything to go by.