Type of site | Weblog |
---|---|
Created by | Jeremy Phillips, Ilanah Simon Fhima[1] |
URL | http://www.ipkat.com |
Commercial | No |
Registration | No |
Launched | 2003[1] |
IPKat is a law blog founded in June 2003, and dedicated to intellectual property law (IP) with a focus on European law.[1][2] The content comprises news of recent judicial rulings, decisions of patent and trade mark granting authorities, primary and secondary legislation, practice and procedural notes and recent publications, together with comments.
A feature of the blog is the expression of opinions through the often contrasting observations made by two fictional cats, the IPKat himself and his female companion Merpel. A third feline, the AmeriKat, analyses IP developments in the U.S.[3]
IPKat was founded by Jeremy Phillips, who had previously launched the Managing Intellectual Property magazine and sold it to Euromoney Publications in 1991.[4]
As of December 2017, the contributors included Annsley Merelle Ward (a.k.a. "the AmeriKat"),[2] and Neil J. Wilkof.[5] Johanna Gibson stepped down in January 2009,[6] as did David Pearce in February 2011,[7] Jeremy Phillips in 2015,[8] and Mark Schweizer at the end of 2017.[9]
In July 2005, IPKat was named in Managing Intellectual Property magazine (which Phillips founded fourteen years earlier) as one of the 50 most influential people in the IP world.[10]
In August 2008, IPKat was voted top of the 'IT law and governance' category in Computer Weekly magazine's 2008 IT blog awards.[11] In the same year, a legal book reported it as being "one of the best-known and most successful of all law blogs".[1]
In January 2010, the United States Library of Congress selected the IPKat for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs.[12] In December 2010, IPKat was selected as one of the American Bar Association's Top 100 Legal Blawgs.[13][14]
IPKat is a registered Community Trade Mark (Registered Number: 008150286).