Agenda

22nd Annual BCLT/BTLJ Symposium

The Administrative Law of Intellectual Property

 

Thursday, April 12, 2018
Agency Design

1. Agency design – How should IP agencies optimally be designed, both internally (what sort of offices and officers should they have) and where should the agencies be placed within the U.S. governmental structure? How well do the existing agencies match with optimal designs? How do U.S. IP agency designs differ from those in other countries?

        Vikrum Aiyer, Postmates, former Chief of Staff, USPTO

 Graeme Dinwoodie, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law and University of Oxford    

 Terry Ilardi, Senior Counsel, IP Law Policy, IBM

        Anne Joseph O’Connell, UC Berkeley School of Law
 
 
2. Agency procedures – How do IP agencies exercise their ministerial functions: registration, recording, examination, issuance, and review?
Erik Bertin, Copyright Office

Sarah Burstein, University of Oklahoma College of Law

Jeanne Fromer, NYU School of Law

Melissa Wasserman, University of Texas Law School

 
 

Keynote: Howard Shelanski, Georgetown University Law School

 

3. Agency Rule-making – What rule-making authority do the U.S. IP agencies have? How well do they exercise these powers? Should they have more rule-making authority?

        Stuart Graham, Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology

 Sonia Katyal, UC Berkeley School of Law 

  Joe Liu, Boston College Law School

 Aaron Perzanowski, Case Western Reserve University School of Law

 

4. Tensions Between IP Agencies and Other Parts of the Executive Branch – What is the relationship between the policies and decisions of IP agencies and those of other executive agencies? Some agencies may have different priorities than IP agencies on IP issues. When this happens, how are the tensions that arise addressed and resolved?

Rebecca Eisenberg, University of Michigan Law School

Sapna Kumar, University of Houston Law Center

Tejas Narechania, UC Berkeley School of Law

        Renata Hesse, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

 

 

Friday, April 13, 2018
Review of Agency Decisions

 

Keynote: Michelle Lee, Former Undersecretary of Commerce and Director, USPTO

 

5. Invalidation: What procedures are there and should there be within IP agencies to review whether claimants’ IP rights are valid?

         

Colleen Chien, Santa Clara University School of Law

Rob Merges, UC Berkeley School of Law

Alexandra Roberts, University of New Hampshire School of Law

Christopher Sprigman, NYU School of Law 

        Saurabh Vishnubhakat, Texas A&M University School of Law

 

6. Judicial Deference: How much deference do and should judges give to IP agency decisions, practices, and policies?

        Shyam Balganesh, University of Pennsylvania Law School

Dan Burk, University of California, Irvine

Deborah R. Gerhardt, University of North Carolina School of Law

Matthew Kreeger, Morrison & Foerster (moderator)

        Arti Rai, Duke University School of Law

 

David E. Nelson Keynote: Hon. Raymond T. Chen, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Introduced by Matthew Kreeger, Morrison and Foerster

 

7. Enforcement Issues: What role should IP agencies play in enforcing IP rights? Should Congress establish small claims tribunals within IP agencies’ domain? What kinds of claims should be justiciable and what relief should be available?

        Ben Depoorter, UC Hastings College of the Law

Christian Helmers, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

 Lisa Ouellette, Stanford Law School

 Pam Samuelson, UC Berkeley School of Law