From the trendy part of London, I head off to an IPKat
lunch. This is for people involved in
writing or editing or publishing things to do with IP, proper serious things
usually. Everyone there works for a
journal or a publishing house or is one of the IPKats themselves (I have
ACTUALLY met an ACTUAL IPKat, can you believe that??! Luckily, they do not treat me with the same
disdain as the cat-that-shows-me-its-bottom at home).
When people ask me what I do and why I am there it becomes a
tad embarrassing, because in truth I am not entirely sure why I am there, so I
have to mumble about writing this little blog thing that makes fun of, well, of
my own work really, and it doesn’t sound too impressive put like that. However, the journalists prick up their
cat-ears when they hear that I am Under Investigation for damaging CIPA’s
reputation, because suddenly I become a martyr to my work and to the noble cause
of Freedom of Speech and we have not had a martyrdom in the IP world for quite
some time.
Later, I talk to the Top Kat and he meets our Chief Shouty
Person Mr Lampert. We think maybe CIPA
and the IPKat should run some sort of joint event. But IPKat events must always be free, says
the Top Kat. I am tempted to say, that’s
OK, nobody wants to pay for a CIPA event anyway.
The best thing about the lunch is that I meet up with an old
friend that I have not seen for over ten years.
We exchange made-up stories about how we have spent the last
decade. I tell him I have done some
vaguely childcare-related activities, some vaguely IP-related activities and a
sabbatical. He says he is running his
own practice as a highly successful barrister and writing acclaimed IP
textbooks. I say I have become
Vice-President of CIPA, but it was by accident I think and now I am in trouble
for not being a very good one. Then I
say you are not supposed to laugh at that.
Still, it is good to meet people of the same vintage as
oneself; you can tell them virtually anything because you know they remember
just as little about the past as you do.
And by tomorrow they will not even recall having the
conversation.
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