Federal Judiciary

45th Annual Conference on Intellectual Property Law - CAIL

By Michael Smith

  The Center for American and International Law is holding its 46th Annual Conference on Intellectual Property Law (CAILAW) at its headquarters in Plano today and tomorrow.  More information can be obtained at the seminar's website.    I will be posting during the presentations as I did last year so don't be surprised if this post keeps changing during the day.

Day 1 - Morning: Patent Litigation

This morning's session focused on patent litigation.  It started with Jones Day's Hilda Galvan 
speaking on the International Trade Commision: The Come-Back Kid discussing the rising popularity of proceedings in the ITC, at least among practitioners who don't appreciate barbecue properly.  Hilda was followed by Fulbright & Jaworski's  Brett Govett, speaking on Patent Litigation: What You Need to Know Now.  Brett's presentation  began with Bilski, followed by a thorough analysis of the Fifth Circuit's recent In re Volkwagen case on venue.  (Brett's conclusion was that the case hasn't resulted in a major change in the Eastern District in patent cases - he thinks patent cases were tranferred previously under certain facts, and will still be.  A key issue will be how receptive the Federal Circuit will be to mandamus as a tool to provide interlocutory review of venue rulings - and he noted that court's attitude toward claims construction rulings).  he also talked about Judge Clark's recent order allowing juries to find future royalty rates (see my recent post on the Ariba verdict here - the jury found royalty rates of 1.5%).  Next up was new Federal Rule of Evidence 502, and some of the recent interesting sanctions cases.

Next up was The Center Ring: Special Issues and Strategies in Multi-Party Litigation by M. Brett Johnson of Fish & Richardson, but as Brett was stuck elsewhere with travel hassles, so John Helms from Fish covered for him.  John did not have this expression on his face during his talk.   The presentation, which was described as being about "herding cats" was very good, and covered reexam requests, waiver issues and other topics of interest to the patent defense bar.

Next is a panel Be Prepared: The Scout's Guide to Litigation Planning, moderated by McKool Smith's Doug Cawley,  with panelists Alan Albright, Betty DeRieux, and Keith Ugone.  Doug disclaims using a slide show, quoting Prof. Lemley's beliefe that "power corrupts and PowerPoint corrupts absolutely."  That was followed by Not-So-Preliminary Infringement Contentions: Getting It Right The First Time, by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Mark Reiter.

Day 1 - Afternoon: Trademark and Copyright Issues

I probably won't post a lot on the afternoon sessions since I'll be getting ready for our panel "All the News That''s Fit to Blawg".
Once again, the discussion will be moderated by Bruce S. Sostek of Thompson & Knight LLP of Dallas.  The panel (including me) includes:
Stephen R. Albainy-Jenei ? Patent Baristas, Frost Brown Todd LLC (Cincinnati, OH)
Kyle B. Fleming ? PATracer.com, Renner Otto Boisselle & Sklar, LLP (Cleveland, OH)
Joe Mullin ? The Prior Art, IP Law & Business Magazine (San Francisco, CA)
Michael C. Smith ? EDTexweblog.com, Siebman, Reynolds, Burg, Phillips & Smith, LLP (Marshall, TX)
Peter Zura ? The 271 Patent Blog, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP (Chicago, IL)

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on November 10, 2008 (boomark / email).