The pleasant task of Class 46 (after coffee, which was itself a pleasure) was to listen to Hanne Weywardt (MAQS Law Firm) guide MARQUES conference participants through the features on the new website -- which you can check out here. These features include Class 46 itself. This weblog has now been formally adopted by MARQUES and a rather smart version of the page that still appears on http://class46.eu/ can be found by clicking here. There is still a little work to be done on the MARQUES version, but it's pretty functional already. The Class 46 team says "thanks" to MARQUES -- and to Hanne and the members of the organisation's Publication and Website Team, which she chairs -- for their patience and their efforts over the past two years in seeing this project from its earliest infancy to its recent coming of age. I'd like to add personal "thank you" to the members of the Class 46 team past and present for their help, support and congenial company.


Stop press: if you're in Brighton while you're reading this, please note: from around 4.15pm today, various members of the Class 46 team will be meeting in the Metropole Bar, on the entrance to the Hilton Metropole Hotel, to have an informal drink and a chat with anyone who'd like to say hello. Please feel free to join us!

The conference continued with the annual WIPO session, chaired by Jochen Hohfeld (Klunker Schmidtt-Nilson Hirsch). In this session Ernesto Rubbio (WIPO Assistant DG) and Grégoire Bisson (WIPO Deputy Director and Head, International Registrations Division) spoke of the latest additions and improvements to the Madrid System for international registration, as well as some welcome improvements in communications between the International Bureau and those awaiting the fate of their applications.