The IPKat’s 20th Birthday Conference Reports – Part 1

As our readers know, yesterday current and past Kats, Katfriends, and several Katreaders alike gathered at the London offices of Allen&Overy and online to celebrate the (first) 20 years of our beloved IP blog, which has always had – as its core mission – to bring IP news and fun to everyone.

Well, yesterday was no exception, as the official photographs of the day also attest (the photographer is Neil Graveney).

This is the first of a series of posts reporting on the conference proceedings.

The event started with words of welcome delivered by our host David Stone, Hayleigh Bosher and myself (also to celebrate the very recent release of our edited collection Developments and Directions in Intellectual Property Law. 20 Years of The IPKat (Oxford University Press, 2023)), as well as the incontournable Sir Robin Jacob.

After that, it was the turn of our co-founder Jeremy Phillips (who officially retired from the world of IP back in 2015: Merpel’s farewell and thank you here) to deliver a truly Jeremy-esque address on the origins of The IPKat, legal threats (!) received (and made!), and idea and vision for the blog. It felt like (nearly) 8 years had not passed at all!

We love you Jeremy ❤️

Following Jeremy’s address, it was the turn of Sir Richard Arnold to deliver his keynote on “20 years of changes in IP law and practice”.

Lord Justice Arnold opened his address by recalling the cases that The IPKat covered in its early days. After that, he discussed changes in the: court system; judiciary, both full-time and part-time; procedure and practice; alternative dispute resolution; court technology; and IP litigation itself.

Lord Justice Arnold also focused on the topic of diversity in the IP profession, specifically the judiciary, He noted how the full-time IP judiciary in England and Wales still lacks in diversity. As in other areas of the law, Lord Justice Arnold reflected, the problem lies in the pool from which judges are recruited: most IP barristers and solicitors are white, and the large majority are male, although the number of women is increasing slowly. One of the factors hindering progress in this area is that most IP barristers and solicitors have STEM degrees, and it is still the case that STEM graduates are disproportionately white and male.

All the above said, Lord Justice Arnold concluded his keynote noting that, despite all these changes, there has been considerable continuity in the way IP cases are handled by the English courts. The story has been one of steady evolution, not revolution. Despite the efforts made to improve the court system, procedure and practice, and court technology, the direction of travel has been towards increasing complexity of IP litigation.

Now over to Anastasiia to report on the first panel of the day, devoted to the best – and worst! – copyright cases of the past 20 years.