Intellectual Property Committee
ABA Section of Antitrust Law
IP Program
The Intellectual Property Committee would like to report that the Annual Meeting Session in Chicago on Tuesday, August 7, 2001 was a smashing success. Co-sponsored by the Intellectual Property Section, the afternoon session featured a mock oral argument of the case the Supreme Court did not take--CSU v. Xerox--raising the question of the conflict between intellectual property law and antitrust law as it relates to refusals to deal. Dan Wall of Latham and Watkins squared off with Bill Jaeger of Townsend & Townsend & Crew before a distinguished "mock" panel of Judge Diane P. Wood of the Seventh Circuit, Douglas Melamed of Wilmer Cutler &Pickering, Professor Mark Lemley of U.C. Berkeley, and Q. Todd Dickinson of Howrey Simon Arnold & White.
A full audience at this joint session watched as the panelists peppered both advocates with hypothetical about the scope of the patent monopoly and the conflict between the Federal Circuit's decision in CSU v. Xerox and the Ninth Circuit's decision in Image Tech v. Kodak. Many commented that the unique format animated the classic debate between intellectual property law and antitrust law.
Harvey Saferstein of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo and Howard Morse of Drinker Biddle & Reath moderated the lively session.
Enforcement Policy
For those unable to attend the Annual Meeting in Chicago, Timothy J.Muris’s prepared remarks on "Antitrust Enforcement at the Federal Trade Commission: In a Word—Continuity" and Charles A. James' presentation on "Be Careful What You Wish For:Some Thoughts on The Merger Review Process" are now available on the FTC website and the Antitrust Division Website. The title of each presentation contains a hyperlink.