FTC Conference on Patents Today

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15358


FTC conference on patent reform starts today

Patent thickets need cutting

By INQUIRER staff <mailto:[email protected]>: Donnerstag 15 April
2004, 14:03


*A CONFERENCE* chaired by the Federal Trade Commission, the National Academy
of Sciences and the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology kicks off in
California in a few hours time.

The idea is reform the patent system without stopping innovation, but the
industry is along there in the shape of giants Intel, Microsoft, Symantec
and others, and we're sure they'll try to pursue their own agenda.

There will also be representatives from the European Patent Office and the
US Patent and Trademark Office.

Luckily, they are counterbalanced by legal organisations and academics.

The agenda for the workshop is here
<http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/patentsystem/patentsystemagenda.pdf>, and
there's a very lengthy discussion document about proposed reform on the FTC
site, here <http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/10/innovationrpt.pdf>.

The FTC document proposes a number of changes to the current system
including a new admin procedure to challenge a patent's validity without
having to go to law, allowing courts to find patents invalid on the
preponderance of evidence rather than clear and convincing evidence, and the
limiting of awards of "treble" damages.

It's pretty clear that for many large companies, patent actions have become
a wing of marketing. Kicking off big patent cases can tie a smaller
competitor up for years as the painful battle continues through the courts.
Let's hope sanity prevails. But don't hold your breath for that.



Day 1: Thursday, April 15, 2004 at the Bancroft Hotel
1. 12:00 - 1:00 pm
Press Conference
- Mark Myers: NAS & Xerox Corporation
- Commissioner Mozelle Thompson: FTC
1:30 - 3:00 pm
Overview of the Patent System and FTC Proposal for Reform
- Susan DeSanti: Senior Policy Analyst, FTC
- Prof. Peter Menell: BCLT & Boalt Hall School of Law
- Prof. Robert Merges: BCLT & Boalt Hall School of Law
Day 2: Friday, April 16, 2004 at the Bancroft Hotel
8:00 - 8:30 am
Opening Remarks
- Dean Designate Chris Edley: Boalt Hall School of Law
- Robert Merges of BCLT and Boalt Hall School of Law
- Mark Myers: NAS & Xerox Corporation
- Commissioner Mozelle Thompson: FTC
8:30 - 9:40 am
Non-obviousness Panel (Reinvigorating the Non-obviousness Standard)
- Rochelle Dreyfuss: New York University
- Rebecca Eisenberg: University of Michigan
- Ron Laurie: Inflexion Point Strategy, LLC
9:45-11:00 am
Opposition and Post-Grant Review Panel
- Robert Blackburn: Chiron Corporation
- Prof. Joe Farrell: Economics, UC Berkeley (CPC)
- Bronwyn Hall: Economics, UC Berkeley
- Dietmar Harhoff: European Patent Office
- Steve Kunin: Patent and Trademark Office
- Prof. Robert Merges: BCLT & Boalt Hall School of Law
- Douglas Norman: Eli Lilly
11:00 - 11:15 am
Break
11:15 am - 12:45 pm
Litigation Panel (Including Presumption of Validity)
- Mark Janis: University of Iowa
- Mark Lemley: BCLT & Boalt Hall School of Law
- Lynn Pasahow: Fenwick & West
- James Pooley: Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy
- Matthew Powers: Weil Gotshal & Manges
- Arti Rai: Duke University
12:45-2:00 pm.
Lunch
2:00 - 3:45 pm
Industry/Institutional Issues Panel
- Carl Shapiro: Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley (co-moderator)
- Commissioner Mozelle Thompson: FTC (co-moderator)
- Robert Baechtold: Fitzpatrick Cella Harper and Scinto & AIPLA
- Robert Barr: CISCO
- Bart Eppenauer: Microsoft
- Sean Johnston: Genentech
- Jay Monahan: eBay
- Ron Myrick: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner
- Kulpreet Rana: Google
- Robert Sacoff: Pattishall, McAuliffe & ABA IP Section
- David Simon: Intel Corporation
- Herb Wamsley: Intellectual Property Owners
3:45-4:00 p.m.
Concluding Remarks
Commissioner Mozelle Thompson