Patent Law

The Antitrust, Pharmaceutical, and Standards Committees of the Intellectual Property Owners Association is hosting the above titled conference on June 9, 2008 in Washington, DC at the Ronald Regan Building and International Trade Center.

This conference will examine the role of competition law by the courts and antitrust enforcement agencies in defining patent rights. Panels will discuss a variety of industries and topics dealing with this ever-challenging intersection of patent and antitrust law.

Licensing IP in the Current Patent Litigation Environment will address the topic of licensing patents in light of the Supreme Court?s decision in MedImmune v. Genentech affecting declaratory relief jurisdiction and in Quanta v. LG Electronics addressing restrictive licensing practices.

Antitrust Implications of Standards Organization IP Policies will address principles of competition as they are applied to the standard setting activities. Such forums have been recognized as simultaneously having both procompetitive and anticompetitive potential, making differentiating between the two difficult ? a situation only intensified by the increasing prevalence of IP rights that are incorporated into a standard. The panel will discuss the Federal Trade Commission?s activities in this arena, including the N-Data Solutions and Rambus cases.

Antitrust Liability in Reverse Payments Cases and Lifecycle Management in the Pharmaceutical Industry will focus on recent developments in the pharmaceutical industry and in particular the treatment of ?reverse payments? under Hatch-Waxman life-cycle management and orange book listing strategies.

Inequitable Conduct, Walker Process and Handgards Litigation will address the status of inequitable conduct and fraud at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and related issues that arise later in a large number of patent infringement cases. Topics will include a review of recent case law; differences between fraudulent procurement in Walker Process and simple inequitable conduct claims following the Federal Circuit?s Dippin? Dots decision; evolving perspectives on the Noerr-Pennington doctrine; and the problems of market definition and market power in antitrust counterclaims.

More information and registration are available here.