| Previous Events & CLE Programs
March 28, 2008
Committee Meeting
Enhanced Remedies for Federal Trademark & Patent Claims Under State Law
Mike Gilleran, Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP, will discuss the cutting edge case law that permits a party to sue for trademark infringement under the Federal Lanham Act, but to replace weaker Lanham Act remedies with stronger remedies under state 93A or Little FTC Act law. These stronger state remedies include (1) multiple times lost profits for willful or knowing conduct, (2) attorneys fees' often to a prevailing plaintiff even without any demonstration of willful or knowing conduct by the defendant, and (3) expert's fees. This program will also address whether these same stronger remedies under 93A or Little FTC Act law, at least with respect to awards of attorney's fees and expert's fees, might also be available in patent litigation.
January 16, 2008
Committee Meeting
Lessons Learned while Litigating Trademark Cases
Joshua Dalton, partner, Bingham McCutchen LLP, will offer tips and insights concerning three issues common to trademark litigation, namely consumer surveys, demonstrating third party use, and the importance of double entendres in assessing and demonstrating the protectability of a trademark.
November 27, 2007
Committee Meeting
Patent Exhaustion -
What the Supreme Court Should Rule
Donald R. Steinberg, Partner at WilmerHale and chair of the firm's Intellectual Property Law Department, will review the patent exhaustion doctrine in light of the Supreme Court's grant of certiorari in Quanta v. LG Electronics. We will look at the background of the doctrine and discuss how it fits within current patent law case.
October 10, 2007
Committee Meeting
Enhanced Damages and Opinions of Counsel in the Wake of Seagate
Sponsors
Intellectual Property Litigation Committee
Intellectual Property Law Committee
Susan Glovsky, a Principal at Hamilton Brook Smith Reynolds, will discuss the recent Federal Circuit decision in Seagate, which creates a new standard for awarding enhanced damages for willful infringement in patent cases. The talk will include a discussion of opinions of counsel, privilege waiver, and the new significance of preliminary injunction motions.
June 7, 2007
CLE Program
U.S. Supreme Court 2006-2007: Active Battleground for Patent Law
Patent law decisions and policy have recently come under more scrutiny by the public, press, and lawmakers. The Supreme Court has joined in this greater attention to patent law, hearing a greater number of patent appeals over the last few years than in prior years. This program will provide an in-depth analysis by some of Boston’s most experienced patent practitioners of important patent law cases before the Supreme Court this year.
Click here for complete program description
May 16, 2007
Committee Meeting
Microsoft's Intellectual Property Litigation: Billion Dollar Awards and Extraterritorially Scope Issues
Almudena Arcelus and Rebecca Kirk from Analysis Group, Inc. will discuss the $1.5 billion award Alcatel-Lucent v. Microsoft case, the Supreme Court's review of AT&T v. Microsoft, and Microsoft's decision to sue Alcatel in the ITC. They will also address how these decisions and strategies may affect related intellectual property cases.
April 18, 2007
Committee Meeting
Viacom vs. YouTube: In Copyright, The More Things Change
Professor Russel VerSteeg of New England School of Law will discuss the Viacom v. Google/YouTube case and whether a law designed to protect the printing press can adapt to the realities of a digital world operating nearly at the speed of light.
February 21, 2007
Committee Meeting
The TTAB in 2006: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
John L. Welch, Of Counsel to Lowrie, Lando & Anastasi, LLP, will discuss recent developments at the United States PTO Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Specifically, he will:
- review his choices for the ten best and ten worst TTAB decisions of the year
- take a look at the current status of the Board's thus far unattractive attempt to revise the TTAB Rules
January 17, 2007
Committee Meeting
The Google Cases and Developing Issues in Copyright Law
**This meeting is co-sponsored with the Computer & Internet Law Committee and The Copyright Society of the U.S.A.**
Bradley E. Abruzzi, an Associate of the Office of the General Counsel of Harvard University, will discuss Google Inc.'s emergence as an unlikely champion of fair use rights in the minefield of digital media. He will discuss the aggressive business practices that have landed Google in federal court as a regular defendant of copyright claims, including:
- Google's crawling and caching of websites for its core search engine functionality
- the company's Image Search feature
- the Google Print Library Project
- the company's recent acquisition of YouTube and the raft of copyright claims that come with it.
Attention will be given to recent court decisions relating to Google's practices, as well as the state of litigations currently in progress.
December 20, 2006
Committee Meeting
Patents and the Role of Opinion Counsel
Kathleen M. Williams, Ph.D., a partner at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP will discuss some what in house counsel should expect from outside patent counsel in opinion work including:
- How the interactions and behavior during opinion preparation be viewed later during trial
- Whether testimony at trial to avoid treble damages make a difference to the outcome
November 10, 2006
Committee Meeting
Obviousness and the Impact of KSR v. Teleflex
This meeting is co-sponsored by the Boston Patent Law Association
Jerry Cohen, partner at Burns & Levinson LLP, will address the development of the law of obviousness related to patents. He will also discuss the possible impact of the KSR v. Teleflex case currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
October 18, 2006
Committee Meeting
"Trademarks 101"
**This meeting is co-sponsored with the Intellectual Property Law Committee and New Lawyers Section**
William J. Morris of Bromberg & Sunstein LLP will discuss the basics of trademark practice before the USPTO.
May 18, 2006
Committee Meeting
Prejudgment Interest in Patent Damages Cases
Professor Roy J. Epstein Ph.D , an Adjunct Professor of Finance at Boston College, will discuss the principles relevant for determining the amount of prejudgment interest in patent damages cases. He will explain the key economic considerations and apply them to a number of interesting recent cases. What may come as a surprise is that the prime rate is too high in many cases, even though it is often advocated as conservatively low. For lengthy damages periods and/or large damages awards, use of the wrong interest rate can have significant financial implications.
Professor Epstein will draw upon his article in the Winter 2006 IPL Newsletter titled Prejudgment Interest Rates in Patent Cases Don’t Compound an Error.
May 16, 2006
Committee Meeting
Copyright and Google Image Search
Co-sponsored with the Intellectual Property Litigation Committee and Arts, Entertainment & Sports Law Committee.
Robert A. Bertsche, a partner at Prince Lobel Glovsky and Tye LLP, will discuss the copyright infringement case brought by Perfect 10, an adult oriented website, against Google.
Perfect 10 claims that Google's Image search feature infringes its copyright by displaying thumbnail versions of pictures from Perfect 10's website similar to thumbnail photos sold by Perfect 10. Perfect 10 has won the first battle, obtaining a preliminary injunction from the US District Court in Los Angeles , which preliminarily rejected Google's fair use defense. The case implicates broad issues of copyright infringement on the internet.
May 9, 2006
Committee Meeting
Use of Mediation and Arbitration in the Resolution of IP Disputes
Co-sponsored with the International Dispute Resolution Committee and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee
Lee Carl Bromberg, of Bromberg & Sunstein LLP, and Jerry Cohen, of Burns & Levinson LLP, will discuss the use of mediation and arbitration in the resolution of intellectual property disputes from the standpoints of an advocate for a party and a neutral.
April 24, 2006
Committee Meeting
Patent Trolls - Fairy Tale or Real Danger?
Yet2.com, a professional services company and marketplace that assists clients in technology licensing acquisition, will lead a discussion regarding the phenomenon of "patent trolls."
Having addressed this issue in a variety of contexts, Mr. Bernstein will speak about what they are, from whence they come, and lead discussions on whether they are a "good" or "bad" phenomenon, and on what the phenomenon means for patent litigation.
January 17, 2006
Committee Meeting
Selling Google Keywords - Trademark Litigation Issues
Joseph J. Laferrera, a partner at Gesmer Updegrove LLP, will lead a discussion regarding trademark issues relating to selling keywords on Google. He will explore the extent to which it can be the basis for trademark infringement claims, and examine the recent August 2005 decision in Geico v. Google.
November 16, 2005
Committee Meeting
The U.S. Patent System: Working or Broken and Who Decides?
The U.S. Patent System is the subject of a number of hotly contested criticisms including:
1. The USPTO is under funded, understaffed, and overwhelmed.
2. Patents are issuing for pre-existing technologies and trivial improvements.
3. Patent litigation is far too slow, expensive, and unpredictable.
4. Patent "trolls" - companies that acquire patents not to practice them but to extort licensing fees and make infringement claims -- are subverting the system.
5. Pending legislative patent reforms are a band aid and will not fix the problems.
Our distinguished panel of speakers, representing a variety of viewpoints, will evaluate these and other criticisms and address the ultimate questions, is the U.S. Patent System working or not working to foster innovation, and who decides.
Panelists to include:
Lee Carl Bromberg, leading intellectual property litigator and co-founder of Bromberg & Sunstein LLP
Dr. Adam B. Jaffe, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis University
Dr. Robert Rines, founder of Franklin Pierce Law Center; inducted into the US National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994
Ross Kerber, technology beat reporter for the Boston Globe
James Toupin, United States Patent and Trade Office General Counsel
Jack Turner, Associate Director of the MIT Technology Licensing Office
The panelists will provide brief comments and then the floor will be open for spirited questions and debate!
Sponsored by:
Intellectual Property Litigation Committee of the Boston Bar Association
Co-Sponsored by:
The Boston Patent Law Association
BBA Computer and Internet Law Committee
BBA Life Sciences Committee
BBA IP Public Policy Committee
BBA Intellectual Property Law Committee
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