Scots appoint a fourth IP judgeThe IPKat's friend Gill Grassie (Maclay Murray & Spens, Edinburgh) has just informed him that the Lord President in the Court of Session has appointed Lord Hodge as a fourth IP judge for Scotland, with effect from 1 April 2006. The other three are Lord Kingarth, Lord Glennie and Lord Emslie.
Says Gill excitedly:
"I think this additional IP judge is good news for us and is a reaction to the increase in the amount of IP litigation coming to the Scottish courts".
Left: potential hazard for Scottish judges in musical copyright infringement proceedings
The IPKat is thrilled to see how seriously Scotland is taking its commitment to making that jurisdiction so user-friendly for IP litigants. Merpel adds, funny thing though: if you go to the Scottish Courts website and search the Court of Session for IP cases, you'll only find five of them since the beginning of 2004. Where are the cases hiding?
Biographical notes on Lord Hodge here
Some major producers of Scottish IP here, here and here
Buddy Hell!Another of the IPKat's friends - Aaron Wood (Davenport Lyons) - has tipped him off about a little snippet he read in Marketing Magazine. Apparently, despite paying US$40 million to be a global sponsor of this year's soccer World Cup, Anheuser-Busch cannot use the BUDWEISER name in Germany and cannot therefore display it around the football grounds in which the event is hosted. Can any reader confirm the circumstances that led to this (on the assumption that the story is true)?