Here is IP Think Tank’s weekly selection of top intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and internet.

Please join the discussion by adding your comments on any of these stories, and please do let us know if you think we’ve missed something important, or if there is a source you think should be monitored.

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US: David Kappos confirmation hearing (IP Watchdog) (Inventive Step) (Patently-O) (Intellectual Property Watch) (Intellectual Property Watch) (Maier & Maier) (Patent Docs)

EU report ‘United States Barriers to Trade and Investment Report 2008’ (Excess Copyright) (IPKat) (Intellectual Property Watch) (The IP Factor)

UK: House of Lords: Matthew Fisher, one time organist in Procul Harum, wins copyright lawsuit despite 38 year delay in making claim: Fisher v Brooker (Excess Copyright) (1709 Copyright Blog) (IPKat)

Proponents fight to keep IP issues at high level at WTO (Intellectual Property Watch)

Academics debate how to release revolutionary power of development agenda (Intellectual Property Watch)

LDCs commit to use IP for development at WIPO; use of exceptions, flexibilities omitted (Intellectual Property Watch)

Gurry says downturn could prompt IP reform (Managing Intellectual Property)

Is there a fiduciary claim in relation to licences? (IP finance)

Follow up on Chicago IP Business Congress (Innovationpartners)

Negotiating in bad faith (IP ADR Blog)

Case studies in value extraction (IP Frontline)

Combine and conquer – how the synthesis of Design Patent and Trade Dress achieve maximum protection for your product design (IP Frontline)

New figures confirm global patenting decline, China bucks the trend (IAM) (Managing Intellectual Property)

Intellectual Ventures makes hay in Asia and plans to open in Europe (IAM)

IP in corporate communication: Back to basics (IP finance)

Patent prosecution as part of business models? (IP Osgoode)

How to mitigate IP risks? – AMR survey ‘B2B Collaboration: Protecting Critical IP in a Global Marketplace’ (Innovationpartners)

Patents live longer – studies by Nicholas van Zeebroeck (Innovationpartners)

Opel and its patents – GM sale of Opel and IP ramifications (IP finance)

Old habits die hard – IP securitisation (IPEG)

Ensnaring yourself while hunting infringers (IP Directions)

Eight challenges to the successful mediation of patent cases (IP ADR Blog)

Copyright tools – Fair Use Evaluator and Exceptions for Instructors eTool (Creative Commons)

Sub-Sahara copyright: a barrier to information? (Afro-IP)

Preliminary question: does applicant own copyright it is seeking to enforce: Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd v EMI Songs Australia Pty Limited (LawFont)

Canadian copyright collecting agency subverting open debate on copyright (Boing Boing) (Excess Copyright) (Michael Geist)

CMEC seeks review of K-12 Copyright Board tariff (Excess Copyright)

The return of Captain Copyright? CIPO launches ‘promoting respect for IP rights’ (Michael Geist)

Can’t stop, won’t stop: CIPO changes section 45 procedures (Canadian Trademark Blog)

Copyright, fair dealing, satire and parody: some background (David Akin’s On the Hill)

New red dawn in patents: More Chinese than foreign companies filed invention patents (IP Dragon)

Copyright infringement and the end of the world (China Hearsay)

China patents work and I have the proof (China Law Blog)

IP enforcement in China. Or, how I turned a $70 filing fee into $23M in cash – Chint, Schneider Electric patent dispute (Patent Baristas)

EU report ‘United States Barriers to Trade and Investment Report 2008’ (Excess Copyright) (IPKat) (Intellectual Property Watch) (The IP Factor)

Swedish EU presidency mooting European standard for patent searches (BLOG@IP::JUR)

Wine growers, take note: new Regulation for designations (Class 46)

OHIM lays down instructions for Board of Appeal proceedings (Class 46)

IPO procedures streamlined – recommendations of FICCI-DIPP working group accepted (Patent Circle)

Is recession the mother of innovation? (Spicy IP)

Another win for Indian IP and transparency: IPAB website updated (Spicy IP)

Power of IPAB to stay the operation of a patent (Spicy IP)

Another sound mark granted (Spicy IP)

Compulsory licensing by the Copyright Board: Whither copyright expertise? (Spicy IP)

Israel Patent Office clarifies ‘due care’ for missed patent filing deadlines (The IP Factor)

Ice related trade mark may be cool but not immediately associative (The IP Factor)

Talmudic exposition of Patent Office circulars (The IP Factor)

Israel Patent Office circulates flowchart for proposed online submission of material (The IP Factor)

Registration of provisional non-exclusive licenses in Japan Patent Office (Patent Baristas)

Registration of sound marks – story of Hejnal Mariacki as sound trade mark (Class 46)

BARTEX – Bottle shapes and trade mark distinctiveness (Class 46)

Cherkizovsky Market closed because of counterfeit and pirated goods from China (IP Dragon)

CSOH: Judge refuses to bar architect’s copyright infringement claim: Donal Toner v Kean Construction (Scotland) Limited and CRGP Architects and Surveyors (1709 Copyright Blog)

WIPO and Singapore partner in the field of alternative dispute resolution (WIPO)

WIPO Director General meets Prime Minister of Singapore (IP Frontline)

Exchange control – licensing structures and South African Exchange Control Regulations (Afro-IP) (IP finance)

Traditional knowledge – Aladdin’s lessons? (Afro-IP)

War against piracy rages on – 2008 statistics (Class 46)

Madrid Court of Appeals issues judgment on trade mark cancellation involving unregistered artistic name (Class 46)

Controversy over Disney cartoon storyline in which Donald Duck infringes copyright, gets caught, repents (Innovationpartners)

House of Lords: Matthew Fisher, one time organist in Procul Harum, wins copyright lawsuit despite 38 year delay in making claim: Fisher v Brooker (Excess Copyright) (1709 Copyright Blog) (IPKat)

UK: EWHC (Pat): Patent valid but not infringed, letter to Boots unjustified threat: Zeno Corp (Formerly Known As Tyrell Inc) & Anor v BSM-Bionic Solutions Management GmbH & Anor (IPKat) (PatLit)

EWCA (Civ): Product and process description and ‘variant PPDs’ receive judicial scrutiny; British claim construction: W L Gore & Assoc. GMBH v Geox SPA (PatLit) (Gray on Claims)

EWHC (Pat): PPDs and piecemeal litigation: MMI Research Ltd v Cellxion Ltd & Ors (PatLit)

EWHC: When anticompetition spices up competition, greyhounds lose their appeal: Bookmakers’ Afternoon Greyhound Services Ltd & Ors v Amalgamated Racing & Ors (IPKat)

LOCOG demands Olympic Removals stop using Olympic symbol (IPKat)

Infringing goods in transit: are patents more efficacious than trade marks?: Nokia Corporation v Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (PatLit)

Is it safe? – section 22 orders (IPKat)

IP Court Users’ Committee publishes ‘Working Group’s Consultation on Proposals for Reform of the Patents County Court’ (PatLit)

IPO holds ‘trade mark surgery’ (Class 46)

David Kappos confirmation hearing (IP Watchdog) (Inventive Step) (Patently-O) (Intellectual Property Watch) (Intellectual Property Watch) (Maier & Maier) (Patent Docs)

To find out what Kappos may do at the USPTO look beyond America’s borders (IAM)

Rumoured new US Ambassador to UN in Geneva a major Obama fundraiser (Intellectual Property Watch)

N D Illinois: Tips for electronically opening new cases (Chicago Intellectual Property Law Blog)

Michael Jackson’s patent and trade marks (IPblog.ca)

California Court of Appeal: Cross-complaint asserted to counter trade secret complaint falls to anti-SLAPP motion: Raining Data Corp v Barrenechea (IP Law Observer)

Patent reform dead now and for the future (IP Watchdog)

New study commissioned by Manufacturing Alliance on Patent Policy finds that having more ways to challenge patents has problems (Patent Baristas)

Department of State: Foster climate change solutions, biodiversity and economic development with IPR protections (PatentBIOtech)

Is the US serious about international patent harmonisation? (IP Frontline)

Are East Texas companies becoming pawns in the venue-shopping game? (The Prior Art)

Suggestions for fixing the US patent system (IP Watchdog)

Obscure patent: Scriptured outdoor furniture (IP Watchdog)

Published applications as prior art (Patently-O)

Requester success rates in inter partes re-examination (Patently-O)

Innovation Alliance video (Patently-O)

Question on dedication of material (Patently-O)

Bilski case: Financial services, patent experts seek more certainty on business-method patents (Intellectual Property Watch)

CAFC: District Court fails to construe claim term so Federal Circuit construes term in the first instance: Wavetronix v EIS Electronic Integrated Systems (Gray on Claims) (Patently-O)

District Court E D Texas: Patent unenforceable due to inequitable conduct: Ring Plus, Inc v Cingular Wireless LLC (EDTexweblog.com)

ITC enters final determination of s337 violation by MEMS Technology in silicon microphone package investigation (ITC 337 Law Blog)

Amsted Industries – ITC denies Tianrui Group Foundry’s motion to terminate investigation concerning cast steel railway wheels (ITC 337 Law Blog)

Hexagon Metrology – Hexagon files new 337 complaint concerning articulated coordinate measuring arms against Metris and Mitutoyo (ITC 337 Law Blog)

Kruse – Kruse sues General Motors in third suit over diesel engine patents (Green Patent Blog)

Lutron Electronics – ITC institutes investigation regarding lighting dimmer switches following compliant by Lutron against Neptun Light (ITC 337 Law Blog)

Presstek – Initial determination of s337 violation in investigation concerning laser imageable lithographic printing plates involving VIM, Hanita, AteCe, Recognition Systems and Spicers Paper as respondents (ITC 337 Law Blog)

USPTO – GlaxoSmithKline, Triantafyllos and USPTO jointly request stay in PTO rules litigation: Tafas v Doll (Inventive Step) (Managing Intellectual Property)

Giving the auf to fashion copyright (Public Knowledge)

Artists Rights Association – ARA demands licensing fees or removal of Little Mermaid statue in Greenville, Michigan (The Trademark Blog)

Idaho Potato Commission understands the value of protecting its brand (Seattle Trademark Lawyer)

District Court E D Wisconsin: Application not filed in name of the owner of the mark, registration void: Third Education Group, Inc v Phelps (Property, intangible)

9^th Circuit affirms dismissal of author’s claim of trademark infringement in connection with book title: Phillips v Mike Murdock Evangelical Association (Seattle Trademark Lawyer)

TTAB affirms section 2(e)(5) functionality refusal of bird feeder design: In re Woodlinks, Ltd (not precedential) (TTABlog)

TTAB finds BRAIN GAMES merely descriptive of puzzle books, lacking in acquired distinctiveness: In re Publications International, Ltd (not precedential) (TTABlog)

Test your TTAB ‘eyeball’ – Ability on two eagle design marks for clothing: Retail Royalty Company and American Eagle Outfitters, Inc v SASCO Trading Inc (not precedential) (TTABlog)

WYHA: TTAB affirms mere descriptiveness refusal of LOCAL LABEL for clothing: In re Curtis A Brubaker Jr (not precedential) (TTABlog)

Sirius-XM – Ohio woman, Suzanne Bona-Hatem files trademark infringement suit against satellite radio company Sirius-XM over use of SUNDAY BAROQUE (Las Vegas Trademark Attorney)