We drive to Derby, and do another meeting, and then we drive
to Nottingham for a third. Mr Davies
goes very quiet on the journey, especially after the run-in with the
truck. He pretends to tweet but actually
he is upgrading his life insurance.
The meetings are friendly as ever. At one of them, we are offered a couple of
thrones at the head of the table. I do
not think Mr Davies’s ego is in need of a throne so I vote to sit at the back
instead, nearer the biscuits.
Afterwards, Mr Davies goes home and I retreat to a hotel
that Unlucky Gary has booked for me in Nottingham. To my delight, I find my room has a hair
dryer, an iron and wi-fi. I am
overwhelmed by the decadence. I hope
this does not mean that CIPA has to sell the pipe cleaner Christmas tree as
well as the ceremonial sideboard.
I spend my evening drafting some Terms of Reference for a
new upgraded patent administrators’ committee, which will be there to look
after patent administrators and their training.
In due course we think every committee should have Terms of Reference
because then CIPA members will be able to see at a glance which committee is
responsible for which bit of jargon.
It is easy to write Terms of Reference. You just take the last Terms of Reference
someone wrote and change the name of the committee. Then you do a quick find-and-replace with the
list of responsibilities: “patents” to “trade marks”, for instance, or
“students” to “administrators”. Finally,
you make sure that the word COUNCIL appears in BLOCK CAPITALS all the time.
I do not know who wrote the very first Terms of Reference
but I am exceedingly grateful to them.
When I have finished drafting the Terms of Reference, I wi-fi
them a bit and then I iron them. Because
it seems a waste to have wi-fi and an iron and not use them.
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