We are less than a week away from the ABA’s 28th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference in Arlington, VA! There will be over 30 Continuing Legal Education credit sessions, some eligible for ethics credit, in addition to multiple networking events. I will be covering one of the sessions on Copyright called “Copyright Infringement in Patent Prosecution: Might Your Firm Be the Next Litigation Target?” at 8:30 AM in the Arlington Salons 5 and 6.
The session examines the 2012 lawsuits filed against four patent prosecution law firms for copyright infringement. Two publishers from the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (“STM”) alleged that the law firms infringed their copyrights by submitting copies of journal articles each firm included as part of their information disclosure obligations.
“Our goal is to make sure ABA IP practitioners understand all sides of the issues presented and take away some strategies for mitigating their risk,” says session moderator Mr. Stephen Gillen of Wood Herron & Evans, LLP. “Copyright lawyers will be interested because these are copyright infringement suits,” he continues. “Partners in private practice firms, regardless of their area of practice, will be interested because the cost of defending these suits is not trivial, there is exposure for an adverse outcome, and there is the possibility of personal liability.”
The issues are widespread and the outcomes of the lawsuits are vital. Ms. Dale Cendali, of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, says, “These cases reflect the tension between the rights of copyright owners and the rights or obligation of law firms and their clients to comply with federal patent law regarding the disclosure of prior art.”
Mr. Gillen adds, “Under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Rule 3.3), we have an independent duty of candor to the tribunal (defined in the Model Rules to include administrative agencies).”
Make sure you attend the panel to hear what is sure to be a lively discussion on this breaking issue in IP law!
Panelists:
Moderator: Stephen E. Gillen (@sgillen203)
Speaker: Allan Adler (@AmericanPublish)
Speaker: Dale Cendali (@Kirkland_Ellis)
Speaker: Fred Haber (@copyrightclear)
Speaker: Robert L. Stoll (@DrinkerBiddle)
If you can’t make it to the 28th Annual ABA Intellectual Property Law Section Spring Conference this year, you can still follow all the action by following the tweets and blog entries of the ABA-IPL’s Law Student Reporters, who will be covering all the events of the Conference on Twitter. You do not have to sign up for Twitter to follow the Law Student Reports. Just bookmark http://bit.ly/IPLSpring and revisit the link from April 3-5, 2013 to follow all the action.
This CLE program will be covered by the following Law Student Reporters: Kathleen Hudik, third-year law student at American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C., and Franklin Graves, a second-year law student at Belmont University College of Law in Nashville, TN.