The Patent Information Users Group Inc is holding its Annual International Conference for patent professionals. The topic of the conference is “Searching for Patents Beyond Your Borders”.

The details are as follows:
Dates: Saturday May 2, 2009 – Thursday May 7, 2009
Venue: Hyatt Regency San Antonio123 Losoya, San Antonio, Texas, USA 78205
Contact: +1 210-222-1234

In 2008, the conference attracted nearly 400 attendees. The conference will involve a number of technical sessions, workshops and an exhibition. Those practising as Patent Attorneys, may find the conference a useful way to be updated on the latest international patent issues and an opportunity to network with Patent Attorneys from around the world.

The agenda for the conference, along with further details, are available on the PIUG website.

As some of you may have noticed, there is now a Google Calendar on the IP Menu homepage summarising all the upcoming IP conferences around the world. The direct link is here. To add this calendar to your Google account, click the (+) sign at the lower-right hand corner of the calendar.

Managed by Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick, the POF Twitter account will bring you the latest intellectual property news. Follow our Twitter updates here.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has reported a record number of cybersquatting cases in 2008, with a total of 2329 complaints filed under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), an 8% increase from 2007.

WIPO has proposed a new paperless, ‘eUDRP Initiative’ that will remove the need for complainants to submit hardcopies of pleadings. This initiative seeks to not only increase the organization’s environmentally friendly reputation, but also to streamline the complaint filing process.

For more information, please visit the WIPO website.

As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, NSW police recently raided a number of premises in order to disrupt a pirating ring producing counterfeit DVDs and CDs.

The five raids followed months of investigations by the police and entertainment industry organizations.

See also the account in the Australian.

Around a year after the release of WizPatent Express Wizpatent have released WizFolio Web 2.0.

WizFolio is a free browser-based programme which simplifies the collection and sharing of documents, references and patent information.

WizFolio collects and stores references to patents and journals and will, where possible, find the PDF for the patent or journal to which these references refer. These references may then be organized with ease through a drag and drop interface.

The standout feature of WizFolio is its ability to share selected files with either the public or with a selected list of other WizFolio users.

A user may also upload documents to their WizFolio account and similarly chose to make these documents available to other users. Where the uploaded file is a scientific journal, WizFolio will produce a reference by retrieving information from journal databases.

The user interface is intuitive and anyone familiar with the windows operating system will find it simple to use.

Click here for a demonstration of WizFolio.

A number of conferences and courses have been uploaded which are worthy of mention:

8 – 10 Jan 2009 – International Intellectual Property Rights Conference (Kolkata)
29 Jan 2009 – Oppositions and Appeals – The EPO Case Law (London)
30 Jan 2009 – Patents – The EPO Case Law (London)
9 Feb 2009 – Introduction to the International Registration of Trademarks (London)
13 Mar 2009 – Global Franchising Update ~ Legal And Business Insights (London)
27 Feb 2009 – Fundamentals of Patenting (London)
28 April 2009 – International R&D Contracts, Collaborations And Joint Ventures (London)
15 – 19 Jun 2009 – Working With Patents ~ The Patent Summer School (London)
8 – 9 Oct 2009 – 8th Annual Conference For Senior Patent Administrators (London)

View the conference page for more details

Representatives from the European Patent Office (EPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO) and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently met to address shortfalls in the international patent system and to discuss reforms.

Representatives of industry groups , the Institute of Professional Representatives before the EPO and WIPO also participated in the conference.

One question which arose was how to reconcile the two systems currently in operation between the Trilateral members ‘

For several years, the Japanese government has been implementing measures to address long processing times and long backlogs of patent applications.

A number of reforms were put in place including the recruitment of considerable number of new examiners and the outsourcing of certain aspects of the examination process.

The new system has only recently started to process applications and expects to process patents in just over 2 months. IPworld reports that the first patent was granted 17 days after the filing date.

View a detailed account of the recent developments of the Japanese Patent Office at Thomson Reuters.

The US challenged China on three counts:

No copyright protection for works that have not been approved by censors Thresholds for the prosecution of pirated goods so high that ineffectiveUnsatisfactory disposal by authorities of pirated goods.

The US was unsuccessful on the second count. The International Herald Tribune reported that China criticized the US for pursuing these claims, saying that it could ‘