Section Continues to Make a Difference
in the IPL World

From the Chair
William L. LaFuze
Section Chair, 2004-2005

Section leadership continues to push forward on many important projects. The Section just co-sponsored its first program with the World Intellectual Property Organization at the United Nations in New York. The program was directed to arbitration and mediation of disputes and attracted about 150 registrants. This program was planned by Todd Dickinson, former Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office and a current Section Council member. Many thanks to Todd for planning an excellent program that featured WIPO Deputy Director Francis Gurry, David Plant and Robert Sacoff. The Section hopes to put on other jointly sponsored programs with our friends from WIPO in the future.

In mid-April, the Section hosted its 20th Annual Spring IPL Conference during cherry blossom season in Washington, DC. This program had an all-star faculty that discussed the hottest topics in IP law. Hope you made it there!

The Section has just published a book on IP Valuation, Fundamentals of Intellectual Property Valuation: A Primer for Identifying and Determining Value. Wes Anson and Donna Suchy were instrumental in getting this book organized, written and completed. This book is very well done and has already sold 1,000 copies in the month of March alone. Many thanks to Wes and Donna for their hard work in getting this publication off the press. To order your copy, go to www.abanet.org/abapubs/books/5370143 or call 800/285-2221. Special introductory pricing is available for a limited time - so hurry!

The Section has been hard at work on patent law improvement and reform. Over the last several weeks, the Section has been working with other major groups interested in patent law reform, such as the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the Intellectual Property Owners Association, and the Business Software Alliance in an attempt to reach a consensus of the specifics on a patent law reform/improvement bill. The efforts of these organizations to come up with a consensus bill continue. Among the major issues being addressed are: post grant opposition, first inventor to file, the definition of prior art, elimination of best mode, assignee filing of patent applications, publication of all patent applications after 18 months, PTO funding and fee diversion, willful infringement, inequitable conduct, prior user rights, double patenting, injunctions, pre-grant citation of prior art, the standard of proving invalidity regarding art not considered by the examiner, and expanded inter-partes reexamination.

The Section was invited to testify at the first of the House IP Subcommittee Hearings on April 20, 2005, along with representatives from the Intellectual Property Owners Association, the Business Software Alliance, and Genetech. I testified on behalf of the American Bar Association with respect to the issue of first-inventor-to-file, and with respect to other issues raised by the Committee Print draft bill on Patent Quality Improvement on behalf of the Section of Intellectual Property Law. A complete copy of the Committee Print can be found at www.abanet.org/intelprop/home/DraftPatentStatuteDDC.pdf and the testimony I gave at the hearing can be found at www.abanet.org/intelprop/
LaFuze_Testimony_4-20-05.doc.

I have the privilege of working with a wonderful group of intelligent, hardworking, fun-loving volunteers who are willing to devote their time to give back to the profession that supports their livelihood. What a joy this experience has been! Thanks to all the many volunteers who have made my job as chair so rewarding.

Our next major event is the 2005 Summer IPL Conference scheduled in San Francisco on June 22-25. We have a great program planned in a wonderful setting, so put this important event on your calendar and plan to attend. Go to www.abanet.org/intelprop/summer2005 for more information and to register.