2009 Events

Patent Pools

November 6, 2009

In 2006, the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation, and Public Health, recommended the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) play a “bigger role in promoting” patent pools for upstream technologies relevant to developing countries. Forming a patent pool for neglected disease or HIV/AIDS medicines could facilitate powerful innovation with immediate benefit to the health of millions.


Social Networking

October 23, 2009

The conference will address these issues including: the legal and ethical considerations in obtaining information overtly (with subpoenas and warrants) and covertly (using pseudonyms to reach out to witnesses online); best practices for successfully using information obtained from social-networking websites; how to regulate the use of social networks; and how social media has impacted the legal profession.


Patent Cross Licensing

Oct 15, 2009

Patent assertion and licensing activity between productive companies can have more impact on a business than “the troll problem”.  At this conference we will analyze the “why” and “how” of patent cross-licensing. Experienced licensing experts will discuss the key issues that arise in drafting a cross-license and various ways to resolve them.


The 2nd Annual Privacy Law Scholars Conference

June 4 – 5, 2009

The PLSC aims to assemble a wide array of privacy law scholars and practitioners from around the world to discuss current issues and foster greater connections between academia and practice. Our goal is to enhance ties within the privacy law community and to facilitate dialogue between the different parts of that community (academy, government, industry, and public interest).


FTC Hearings

May 4 – 5, 2009
Wells Fargo Room, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley

The Federal Trade Commission held its final two days of hearings in a series exploring the evolving market for intellectual property on May 4-5, 2009, in cooperation with BCLT. The hearings explored how markets for patents and technology operate in different industries, whether those markets operate efficiently, and how patent policy might be adjusted to better promote innovation and competition.


2009 Privacy Lecture

March 18, 2009

BCLT’s 2009 Privacy Lecture featured an address by Richard A. Epstein, the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. Responses to Professor Epstein’s 2008 BCLT Privacy Lecture were made by Professor Orin Kerr and Assistant Professor Erin Murphy.


13th Annual BCLT/BTLJ Symposium

March 6, 2009

Many questions remain concerning the scope of SBN laws, their effectiveness and cost, the incentives and disincentives created by SBN laws, and the nature of the duty of care emerging from expanding SBN and information security laws. The BCLT/BTLJ 2009 Symposium will organize leading thinkers and key decision makers from law, computer science, and economics to present original scholarship on these issues and make recommendations for federal data security approaches.


Patent Valuation

February 6, 2009

Valuation of patents is an important part of corporate patent strategy and effective portfolio management. At this conference, we will present the perspectives of market participants (operating companies, brokers, aggregators, etc.), law professors, economists, and valuation specialists on how to put a value on patents, patent families and patent portfolios in various contexts, such as buying/selling, corporate accounting, and mergers and acquisitions. We will also discuss patent quality metrics and their application to valuation.