: Introduction |
What IP Lawyers Need to Know The past year has been marked by important changes and developments in many aspects of IP law and practice. In an area of the law already fraught with complexity, IP practitioners are faced with an array of new issues and areas of practice, with multi-faceted dimensions. The broad diversity of the practice, its accelerating rate of change, and its growing international importance place ever-increasing demands on the knowledge and skills of these practitioners. The conference will address recent developments in IP law and cover current IP topics including the Patent system in transition; valuation of goodwill and trademarks; political parody; hot topics in trademark law and TTAB year in review; copyright infringement; European practice; IP rights in China; judicially assisted ADR in IP matters; electronic filing; commercializing government IP; using IP to combat bioterrorism; IP litigation – financing and budgeting; privacy, copyright, security and advertising; Markman and claim construction; IP assets; willfulness and Knorr-Bremse; preliminary injunction practice; intellectual property exclusions in CGL policies; trade secrets; databases; open standards; and ethics for IP lawyers. Speakers will include representatives from industry, practitioners from the U.S. and abroad, and key policymakers from the federal government. The program is organized to allow registrants to attend sessions tailored to specific areas of intellectual property law practice and to attend sessions focusing on the problems and issues related to breaking areas of 21st century IP law and practice. New this year, the conference expands to 2-1/2 days of educational programming, to allow for a broader and more in-depth assortment of IP topics to be presented. The conference also introduces a Friday evening IP Law Dinner for all registrants, in addition to the conference reception on Thursday evening.
Program Co-Chairs Amy J. Benjamin, Darby & Darby,
PC, New York, NY Section of Intelllectual Property Law Section of Science & Technology Law
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Welcome to the one annual conference that IP lawyers
consistently and enthusiastically attend to get the latest updates
on all aspects of IP law. Now in its 20th year, the Annual Intellectual
Property Law Conference of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property
Law promises to provide a gathering of the foremost authorities on
the state of intellectual property law. It is the one conference
of the year that you as an IP law practitioner should not miss. The
conference is recognized for its preeminence in covering IP law topics,
both nationally and internationally, and in recent years has received
over 600 attendees annually. 
George Galt is in charge of licensing
and protecting AP’s
intellectual property. Before joining AP three years ago,
he was an associate at Drinker, Biddle & Reath, LLP.
He practiced copyright and trademark law, specializing in
legislative, licensing and enforcement issues. Previously
he was the deputy press secretary for the United States House
of Representative’s Subcommittee on Telecommunications
and Finance, and has also worked as a freelance computer
programmer. He received his bachelor’s degree from
the University of Colorado at Boulder and his law degree
from American University. He is a member of the District
of Columbia and Massachusetts bars.
Stephen M. Pinkos was sworn in as Deputy Under Secretary
of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director
of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
on August 9, 2004. Secretary of Commerce Donald L. Evans
appointed him to the position. Prior to joining the USPTO,
Mr. Pinkos was Staff Director and Deputy General Counsel
for the House Judiciary Committee. In that capacity he worked
on a number of intellectual property related issues including
legislation implementing the USPTO 21st Century Strategic
Plan, IP piracy, Madrid protocol implementation, copyright
arbitration, web casting and database protection.
Sarah B. Deutsch is Vice President
and Associate General Counsel for Verizon Communications.
Her practice covers legal issues in the area of global
Internet policy, including liability, privacy, intellectual
property policy and Internet jurisdiction. She currently
represents Verizon on a host of domestic and international
Internet issues ranging from digital rights management,
the RIAA v. Verizon litigation, Europe’s
IPR Enforcement Directive, ICANN, and legal issues arising
from other Internet-related legislation and litigation. She
served as Private Sector Advisor to the U.S. Delegation to
the World Intellectual Property Organization 1996 Conference
on the WIPO Copyright Treaties. She was one five negotiators
for the U.S. telecommunications industry in the negotiations
that resulted in the passage of the Digital Millenium Copyright
Act.
