The arrival of 40 tall ships is likely to cause quite a stir in Belfast over the next day or so. Thousands will celebrate with a four-day festival so quite a party to be had. An innocuous enough occasion as far as lawyers are concerned then? Unfortunately not, the tall ships have hit more than the odd Atlantic storm getting there including, surprise surprise, one involving lawyers. The Old Salt Blog reports:

"The age of wooden ships and iron men is long gone.  We appear to be square in the era of tall ships and stupid lawyers.  From the SeaCoastonline :"

The American Sail Training Association sent a letter to the Piscataqua Maritime Commission on July 23 demanding the organization cease and desist from using references that infringe on ASTA’s federally registered trademarks. Those trademarks include “tall ships,” “tall ships are coming,” “tall ships 2000″ and “tall ships challenge.” For the past 25 years, the city has hosted a Tall Ships Festival without knowing it was violating ASTA’s trademarks. The term “tall ship” has been registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since 1976.

So looks like its big sailing boats with long wooden poles on their roofs arriving in Belfast then.