Thursday 7 May 2015

A whale of a time

26 March 2015

Today I am having a whale of a time with Mr Davies and the EyePeePee.  It is all part of my Grand Tour, which seems to be taking several months longer than I had initially envisaged but is proving such excellent fun I never want it to stop.

First we visit some patent attorneys at IBM, which is like visiting a stately home set in acres of landscaped gardens, except that there is no gift shop and no mobile phone signal either, and in the case of the mobile phone signal you have to wonder what a company like IBM is playing at if it can’t even get its electronicky stuff right.

Next we visit some patent attorneys in Winchester.  Winchester is posh.  It has lots of gift shops and plenty of mobile phone signal, so much that there is even enough to spare for my rubbishy network that usually broadcasts from outer space via a black hole.  Also when you visit patent attorneys in Winchester you do not just get biscuits, you get sumptuous home-made cakes and things which look like biscuits but are actually large lumps of chocolate with a mere delicate hint of something biscuit-like inside.  I am thinking that the Biscuit Pixies of Winchester are rather up-market pixies and would never dream of going to Poundworld® like the pixies Oop North.  In this part of the UK, Greggs® is a patisserie.  A pork pie is called pork terrine en croute and the children spend their pocket money on petit fours not on Fruit Salad chews like what I used to.

Over the sumptuous home-made cakes, we have a lively debate about the future of CIPA and of the IP profession as a whole.  This is a subject dear to my heart, and it is encouraging to hear that it is not just me scanning the horizon for pirates and other similar threats.  I take care, though, not to spit sumptuous home-made cake crumbs at the other people in the meeting.  Because you cannot bow out of a debate gracefully if you have just showered your fellow debaters with patisserie.

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