IP in the Reform Era: Protecting Your IP Assets in the Perfect Storm

There are clear signs that major forces are converging to effect significant changes in how patents are obtained and protected in the United States. With the appointment of the new Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, the USPTO has made their commitment known to streamline the current processes. The Obama administration has signaled to Congress that they are willing to step in to break the patent reform logjam. In addition, impending rulings by the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit will chart courses on how the critical issues on damages, patent litigation venues, and patent eligibility are determined.

In this half-day seminar, Dr. Hiroshi Akimoto, former Managing Director of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd., Jon W. Dudas, Foley Partner and former USPTO Director, and a group of U.S. and Japanese intellectual property attorneys discussed how Japanese IP executives can decipher the criss-crossing information and prepare for the new era for protecting IP in the shrinking global platform.

The topics included:

• Multi-lateral patent reform: the Obama administration nudges Congress
  
  
  
  
  
  • What does the Secretary Locke’s letter reveal?
  
  
  • Change agent? The new Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and the USPTO’s priorities


• Current judicial “patent reform” at the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit
  
  
  
  
  
  • Bilski on patent eligibility
  
  
  • i4i v Microsoft on venues
  
  
  • Lucent on damages


• New inter partes reexamination — the 2010 rules
  
  
  
  
  
  • How will the strategy for parallel litigation be affected?
  
  
  • How can you increase the odds of the “kill rate?”

Guest Speaker

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  Dr. Hiroshi Akimoto, former Managing Director, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd.

Foley Speakers

• Jon W. Dudas, former Director of the USPTO, Partner and member, IP Litigation Practice


• Etsuo Doi, Partner and member, Electronics Practice, and Co-Manager, Foley’s Tokyo office


• Michael D. Kaminski, Partner and member, IP Litigation Practice, and Co-Manager, Foley’s Tokyo office


• David E. Kleinfeld, Partner and member, IP Litigation Practice


• Stephen B. Maebius, Partner and Chair, Intellectual Property Department


• Edward Polk Jr., former Associate Solicitor of the USPTO, Partner and member, IP Litigation Practice


• Prof. Harold C. Wegner, Partner and member, Chemical & Pharmaceutical Practice

For specific information in English or Japanese on the content of this seminar, please contact Konomi Kaji or [email protected].