Saturday, August 5, 7:30 - 9:00 a.m.
Presidential CLE Centre at the Hawaii Convention Center
room 316A, 3rd Floor

(Co-sponsored by the ABA Section of Science & Tecnology Law, Forum on Communications Law, Young Lawyers Division, and Law Student Division)

This panel will discuss the latest developments in patent, trademark and copyright law in three panels.

Moderators:

George A. Frank, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, Philadelphia, PA

Nick Setty, Jones Day, Atlanta, GA

1) Hot Topics in Patent Law – A discussion of current U.S. Supreme Court cases, including Illinois Tool Works v. Independent Ink; eBay, Inc., et al. v. MercExchange, LLC; and Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (dba LabCorp) v. Metabolite Laboratories, Inc., et al.

Speaker: Gale R. Peterson, Cox & Smith, San Antonio, TX

2) Hot Topics in Trademark Law – A discussion of the latest developments in trademark law.

Speaker: Theodore H. Davis, Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, Atlanta, Georgia

3) Hot Topics in Copyright Law – A synopsis of developments within copyright law, issues such as Grokster,
the Google Library Project, the state of the Copyright Office, etc.

Speaker: Stephen J. Meyers, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, Philadelphia, PA

Saturday, August 5, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Presidential CLE Centre at the Hawaii Converntion Center
room 316A, 3rd Floor

(Co-sponsored by the ABA Section of International Law, and Young Lawyers Division)

The development of intellectual property systems throughout the world has become the new focal point of debate over globalization. Global corporations and governmental agencies of the developed countries view “harmonization” of intellectual property systems worldwide as important to standardizing the rules for global commerce. However, Third World countries seeking the benefits of new discoveries in food production, energy supply, communications and computing infrastructure, and treatments for diseases see “maximalist” IP regimes as a form of “economic imperialism.” Traditional land-based communities and indigenous peoples see the appropriation of their traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, and biological and genetic resources into intellectual property ownership of global corporations as a new form of “colonialism.”

How are these competing interests to be balanced? WIPO and TRIPS negotiations have been opened up to increased participation of Third World countries and indigenous peoples, but disagreements abound over appropriate terms for or even the need for IP harmonization. Some countries are raising the spectre of routine use of compulsory licensing as a counterweight to patenting by multinationals of critical discoveries in their countries. The interpretation of national IP provisions to suit critical national policies under exemptions provided under TRIPS could lead to the “balkanization” of intellectual property systems. Regional producers of traditional products have filed complaints to the WTO that adoption of regional or cultural designations as trademarks by others constitute an unfair trade practice. Developed countries with strong systems of copyright protection complain about the weak enforcement against piracy of copyrighted works in developing countries. Is IP harmonization even possible?

Moderator:
Leighton K. Chong, Godbey, Griffiths, Reiss & Chong, Honolulu, HI

Speakers:
Shinjiro Ono, Partner at the Law Firm of Yvasa and Hara, and former Deputy Commissioner, Japan Patent Office, Tokyo, Japan

Ruth Okediji, Professor of Law, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

Danielle Conway-Jones, Professor of Law, William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, and Of Counsel, Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing, Honolulu, HI