IPKat

IPKat

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).

• The IPKat