The Nominating Committee, appointed by Section Chair Gordon Arnold, welcomes suggestions of members for nominees for the 2009-2010 ABA year for the offices of Chair-Elect, Vice Chair, Secretary, Financial Officer, Publications Officer, Section Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates (term expiring in 2012), four new members of Council for four-year terms expiring in 2013 and one member for a one-year term expiring in 2010. Under the Section Bylaws, Section Chair-Elect Don W. Martens will automatically assume the office of Section Chair on September 1, 2009.

The nominees will be voted on at the Section’s business meeting, Saturday, August 1, 2009, at the ABA Annual Meeting at the Intercontinental Chicago Hotel in Chicago.

Please contact the Chair or any member of the Nominating Committee, set forth below, before December 31, 2008 with your suggestions:

E. Anthony Figg, Chair
Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, PC
Suite 800
1425 K Street, NW
Washington DC 20005
202-783-6040
Fax: 202-783-6031
efigg@rothwellfigg.com

Susan Barbieri Montgomery
Foley Hoag LLP
Suite 1600
155 Seaport Blvd.
Boston, MA  02210-2600
617-832-1222
Fax: 6176-832-7000
sbm@foleyhoag.com

June M. Besek
Columbia University School of Law
Box A-17
435 W. 116th Street
New York, NY  10027
212-854-1384
Fax: 212-854-9111
jbesek@law.columbia.edu

Kristine Boylan
Merchant & Gould, P.C.
3200 IDS Center
80 South 8th Street
Minneapolis, MN  55402-3788
612-371-5295
Fax: 612-332-9081
kboylan@merchant-gould.com

Craig Summers
Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP
14th Floor
2040 Main Street
Irvine, CA  92614
949-760-0404
Fax: 949-760-9502
csummers@kmob.com

	The ABA-IPL Council has appointed Marylee Jenkins as acting Vice Chair of the Section for the remainder of the Association year to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Q. Todd Dickinson. Marylee has served on the Section Council, as well as a number of other positions in the Section, most recently as Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting Planning Committee. She is with the firm of Arent Fox in New York, NY.
	In addition, the Council has appointed Joan McGivern to a seat on the Section Council left open when current Council member Joseph Potenza was elected to the new position of Publications Officer during the Annual Meeting in August. Joan has chaired a number of copyright committees within the Section. She is with ASCAP in New York, NY.

The Section By-Laws make provision for Council appointment to vacant positions that arise between elections for the remainder of the Association year. The Council position filled by Joan will be up for election at the 2009 ABA Annual Meeting, for the remaining one year of the four year term.

Section Chair-Elect Don Martens is currently considering applications and nominations for division and committee chair appointments for the 2009-2010 ABA year. A recommendation form for these positions can be found on the Section website, along with complete information on procedure. All current division and committee chairs, liaisons, and others are invited to make recommendations, including placing their own names forward, for these positions. To make a recommendation, visit www.abanet.org/intelprop/newappts/appointments1.html.

All ABA-IPL members are now receiving Landslide™, the Section’s newest flagship full color magazine delivered to all members six times a year. You’ll read cutting-edge articles covering a variety of intellectual property law topics from copyright to virtual law authored by the leading experts in the field. Log in to www.abanet.org/landslide to check out the PDF of the debut September/October issue, “Virtual Worlds and Real World Issues” as an exclusive benefit of your membership. On the website, you can also read valuable back editions of the IPL Newsletter and other publication archives.

More Publishing

Landslide is part of a transformation of Section publishing and a growing portfolio of books and educational products. As a member you can take advantage of significant discounts on books, including the just published Distance Learning and Copyright: A Guide to Legal Issues and Fundamentals of Intellectual Property Law and Intellectual Property Handbook .

New next month from BNA Books is Drafting Patents for Litigation and Licensing, edited by Bradley Wright.

Coming in January, 2009: the debut of the Section’s Annual Review of Intellectual Property Law Developments: 2006-2008. Watch for more announcements on this premier publication!

Check out the ABA webstore

 

The Copyright Law Reform Task Force, chaired by June Besek, presented a resolution which Council approved, to advocate Orphan Works legislation now moving through Congress. The Section will be seeking Blanket Authority from the ABA to make comments to members of Congress on this legislation. The resolution states that the Section supports in principle legislation to limit the remedies available in copyright infringement suits against users of orphan works who make a good faith, reasonably diligent effort to identify and locate the copyright owners of such works without success, provided that the legislation preserves the ability of copyright owners to obtain meaningful relief, including meaningful compensation for use of orphan works, regardless of the category of work or the nature of the user.

On October 13, President Bush signed into law S. 3325, a bill to strengthen substantive laws and enforcement mechanisms relating to intellectual property. S. 3325 passed the Senate on September 26 and the House on September 28. The bill was introduced and reported in the Senate as the “Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008.” Amendments adopted by the Senate on September 26 include renaming the bill the “Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008”. This is the title of a counterpart House bill, H.R. 4279, which passed the House on May 8. Some of the provisions of S. 3325 were derived from an earlier bill, S. 522. The ABA-IPL Section supported enactment of S. 522.

In recent years, devastating hurricanes and other disasters have hit major cities in the U.S. and many of our members have been affected directly or indirectly. In response to such situations, the American Bar Association has developed a Special Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response. Thomas Wallen has been appointed as the Section’s Liaison to this Special ABA Committee. Tom received specialized training in disaster response through the Virginia Bar– specifically in helping hurricane victims in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Tom currently serves as Chair of the Section’s Patent Inter Partes Proceedings Committee.

As a result of a large number of volunteers for the liaison position in response to our request, the Section has created a Section-level subcommittee that can work on these issues as they may affect IP lawyers, and to coordinate with the ABA Special Committee on providing Section resources as needed or as appropriate.

The new Subcommittee on Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response will be chaired by Teri Bossard, and has been organized as a subcommittee of the Pro Bono Committee chaired by Stephen Swift.

Teri has served on Active Duty as an Army Chemical Officer after 9/11. She is trained on subjects such as threat analysis of chemical and biological weapons, preparation for attack, and if an attack does occur, follow-on response, decontamination, and mitigation. Her current unit is primarily focused on providing assistance to civil authorities during a disaster.

Initial subcommittee members include: Rachel Arroyo, David Cox and Jeffrey Neu.

Individuals interested in participating in this new subcommittee should send an e-mail with complete name, address, phone, fax, and email information to leggk@staff.abanet.org.

All Section members are invited to attend two Section-sponsored CLE program sessions to be held in conjunction with the ABA Mid-Year Meeting in Boston, on Saturday, February 14, 2009. You must register for the ABA Mid-Year Meeting to attend, but there is no fee for registration, and no additional fee to attend these program sessions. To register for the ABA Mid-Year Meeting, visit the ABA Mid-Year Meeting website at: www.abanet.org/midyear/2009.

Watch the Section website for further program details as they become available.

The Judicial Intern Opportunity Program (JIOP) is seeking to expand its partnership with the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law. JIOP is a full-time six-week minimum summer internship program which is open to all first- or second-year minority and/or financially disadvantaged law students who want to do legal research and writing for state and federal judges.

The program is administered by the Section of Litigation, which has partnered with the Section of Antitrust Law and the Section of Intellectual Property Law to support JIOP both financially and with member and volunteer support.

Over the past seven years, the program has grown exponentially. It started with 58 students and 40 judges in two cities and now provides screening interviews with nearly 600 program applicants, from which 195 interns are assigned to 165 judges in eight locations. ABA-IPL was able to place a total of 14 interns specializing in IP with federal and state judges this past summer.

ABA-IPL aids the program through interviewing, funding and fundraising. Participating sections are asked to encourage their members to volunteer to conduct screening interviews, to locate judges willing to host interns in program cities, and also to assist in the fundraising efforts so the beneficial work of the program may continue and grow.

Co-Chairs of the ABA-IPL JIOP effort are Robert Krupka (bkrupka@kirkland.com) and Stephen Spears (spearss@howrey.com). All ABA-IPL members interested in helping to screen interviewers for applicants, locating host judges, or assisting with fundraising are encouraged to contact them to discuss these options and other ways in which they may benefit the JIOP program.

Due to a U.S. Postal Service split of downtown Chicago ZIP Codes, ABA headquarters at 321 N. Clark Street in Chicago has a new ZIP Code: Chicago, IL 60654. Please note this in your contacts and address books.

Does the ABA have your email address?

You may be missing out on important e-mailings from both the ABA and the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law. Please be sure your email address is on file and up-to-date!

By phone: ABA Member Services at 1.800.285.2221 between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., CST

By Post : ABA Membership Services, 16th floor, 321 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60654-7598

By e-mail: service@abanet.org. or go www.abanet.org “contact us” link.

Online: (1) Go to the ABA homepage (www.abanet.org), (2) Login, (3) Locate MyABA link (top left of the page), (4) EDIT within the profile module, and (5) update email address.

More than just continuing legal education … a unique IP experience

Mark your calendar and watch for complete conference and
registration information on our website as it becomes available.

24th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference April 1-4, 2009
Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel
Arlington, Virginia

ABA Annual Meeting & ABA-IPL Section Programs
July 30 - August 4, 2009
Intercontinental Chicago Hotel
Chicago, Illinois