9.00 Get to office and have meeting with Jorgo Chatzimarkakis and BASF about a dinner they are planning for 12 June.

11.00 Meeting with people from the International Federation of the Recording Industry about the Zingaretti Report on Criminal Sanctions for IP. They reckon nothing much is gained by it at the cost of a lot of problems – I agree but the signal of dumping it would also be wrong.

11.45 Go to the Stanhope for lunch with Thaddeus and Francisco. We discuss Russia, a bit on copyright levies and the EPLA situation. I detect a cooling off on EPLA from industry, which has also come to me from other quarters. Not surprising I suppose because when it looked like a relatively quick option it was attractive, but the price of ‘Communitising’ it looks like a lot of delay, complexity and I do not know how the ECJ would fit in well without specialist judges. Anyway, I do not see a quick fix any more. Pity because it would have been good to get a proper feedback loop from the courts to the European Patent Office functioning.

14.00 Back to my office for a French lesson. I learn all the vocabulary for changing locks that I did not have earlier this week.

16.30 Get back to the flat with yet another cushion cover as a sample to see whether it matches; think I may have got it right this time.

18.00 Meet David Griffiths for dinner at the Rennaissance. He is over for a meeting tomorrow of the ELDR steering Committee to discuss budgets. I am also on the Committee, but the way the discussions on payments seem to be going I doubt whether I will get there, so David will have to cope alone. Go back to flat at 8pm and pack.