Message from the Chairs

Once again this year, our committee leadership is focused on getting our committee more connected and getting our membership more involved. We’ve already begun several new initiatives to make this happen, and we will continue this year with several initiatives implemented last year. In addition, many of our most successful member benefits from past years will be back.

First, this year we have already significantly expanded our subcommittee structure. Nearly all of our existing subcommittees have been expanded from two to three cohairs. In addition, we have added new subcommittees aimed at broadening our reach: Diversity, Young Lawyers, and Internet/Privacy.

Our demographic reach will be expanded by the addition of a Diversity Subcommittee and a Young Lawyers Subcommittee. These new subcommittees each have a similar charge. The Diversity Subcommittee’s purpose is to use the first year of its existence to develop a committee-level Diversity Plan. In consultation with the committee cochairs and appropriate Section resources, and in concert with the Section’s Diversity Plan, this plan will be aimed at diversifying committee membership and leadership and promoting diversity in the legal profession, especially in the field of Intellectual Property. The purpose of the Young Lawyers Subcommittee is similar. In its first year, it will develop a plan aimed at helping our committee increase member benefits to and participation of IP practitioners less than 36 years of age or admitted to practice for five years or less. This committee will also act in close consultation with the committee cochairs and appropriate Section resources, as well as in liaison with the ABA Young Lawyers Division.

In the same vain, this year will mark a reinvigoration of our Women & IP Subcommittee. This subcommittee will be dedicated to providing special networking opportunities and other benefits to women practitioners in the IP field. The subcommittee is already working on a special event to be held at either the Section Annual Conference or the ABA Annual Meeting.

And we have also added a new substantive practice area subcommittee, the Internet/Privacy Subcommittee, to focus on cutting edge issues like Web 2.0, social networking, user-generated content, wikis, blogs, and the like.

Of course, we will continue this year with our regularly held “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. Our website is loaded with more content than ever, and we are planning to roll out new “web exclusive” articles from our newsletter. In addition, our Patents Subcommittee will continue its periodic conference calls with federal judges this year.

We also continue to be extremely active in presenting CLE programs at the Section Annual Conference and the ABA Annual Meeting. Last year, we presented a three-program “track” on Web 2.0 and related issues at the Section Annual Conference, and a program on preparing expert witnesses at the Annual Meeting in Chicago. We’ve already submitted two proposed program tracks for the 2010 Section Annual Conference, and we’ll soon be soliciting your input on possible programs for the ABA Annual meeting. In addition, on September 15, 2009, we will sponsor a Section Teleconference: Behind-the-Scenes Trademark Use on the Internet: Keywords, Adware, Spyware, and More.

Just like last year, we’re also going to work hard to encourage your attendance at the Section of Litigation’s Annual Conference in New York in April and the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco in August. We started new “tradition,” inviting the entire committee to dinner in both Atlanta and Chicago, and more than 40 people attended in total.

So, we’re looking forward to your input and participation.
Please let us know if you would like to be more involved.

Erick Howard
John Hutchins
Coke Stewart
Co-Chairs, Intellectual Property Litigation Committee