The Intellectual Property Litigation Committee considers its area of responsibility litigation relating to patent, trademark, copyright, trade secrets, the Internet, and related unfair competition cases. The wide scope of this committee runs from technical products to artistic works. Though focusing on federal law, it also touches upon state law and international concerns. With approximately 2300 members, we are one of the largest and most active substantive law Committees in the Section of Litigation.

Some of our key activities and projects include: Model jury instructions for trademark and copyright cases (in process); monthly “brown bag” roundtable lunches, hosted throughout the country, in which our members discuss hot topics in intellectual property litigation; and our widely-acclaimed quarterly newsletter. In addition, our Committee is extremely active in presenting CLE programs at Section and ABA annual meetings, as well as teleconferences on breaking issues in intellectual property law, featuring lawyers at the heart of those issues. For instance, we recently presented a CLE program at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco in August, entitled “The Intersection of Antitrust and Intellectual Property,” along with a program on the trial of a fair use case at our Committee breakfast meeting. Our recent teleconferences have included a program on the KSR v. Teleflex case which featured the lawyers who argued before the Supreme Court. On October 30 we are scheduled to present a teleconference on the Federal Circuit’s groundbreaking Seagate decision.

Dispute Over Key Damages Provision May Doom Patent Reform – The Patent Reform Act (S.1145) was recently pulled from the floor schedule by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-AZ).

Get up-to-date with all of the newsworthy patent cases from 2007. Brad Wright's year-in-review summary provides a listing and brief description of 2007's main court decisions on patent matters.

The Intellectual Property Litigation Committee is inaugurating what we are confident will be an original, interesting, and useful new feature: “The Patent Trial Lawyer’s Column.” On a regular basis, prominent trial lawyers will share their experiences and wisdom about various aspects of trying patent cases. In our inaugural column, Steve Zager writes about starting a party’s presentation in a complicated patent trial by calling the expert as the first witness instead of the more traditional choice of calling the client as the lead-off witness. We look forward to future columns about other strategies and advice for trying a patent trial, and trust you will find them beneficial.