2011 Events

12th Annual Silicon Valley Advanced Patent Law Institute

December 8 – 9, 2011

This annual program is organized by BCLT, the Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology and the University of Texas School of Law and features two days of in-depth presentations by leading academics, practitioners and judges on the latest patent law developments. This year’s topics included reexamination, indirect infringement, joint infringement, patentable subject matter, claim construction, and developments at the ITC.


The Internet in Bello: Seminar on Cyberwar Law, Ethics & Policy

November 18, 2011

The seminar, co-sponsored with  Berkeley Law’s Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, examined legal, ethical and policy issues posed by cyber warfare.  While much attention has been paid to jus ad bellum issues – examining when and under what circumstances a cyber attack constitutes an armed attack for the purposes of self defense – relatively little discussion has focused on how cyber warfare might require new rules, or new interpretations of rules, regarding the conduct of hostilities, or the jus in bello, once armed conflict has begun.


Back to School: The New Patent Law Explained

October 21, 2011

The US Patent Law has been revised in major ways. On October 21, 2011, BCLT hosted a conference where professors and practitioners provided detailed explanations of the changes and discussed the impact on patent prosecution, counseling and litigation.


Defense 2.0: New Strategies for Reducing Patent Risk

October 14, 2011

Companies need to rethink how best to maintain their freedom to develop and launch innovative new products and services in light of developments. This conference was co-sponsored with the High Tech Law Institute at the Santa Clara University Law School and brought together professors, attorneys and other patent experts to explore new defensive strategies for navigating the evolving patent landscape in the US and abroad.


Intellectual Property Scholar’s Conference

August 11 – 12, 2011

This annual conference brings together intellectual property scholars to present their works-in-progress and to listen and discuss others’ works. The format of the conference facilitates open discussion and helps scholars hone their ideas.


Online Tracking Protection & Browsers (European Event)

June 22 – 23, 2011

Many questions surround the confluence of US and European developments, including the scope of do not track, the implications of different implementations of do not track, the economic implications of greater consumer control over tracking and how do not track will be applied in European markets. BCLT and the University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Information Law hosted a workshop to explore the law and technology of online tracking and mechanisms for consumer control of tracking June 22-23 in Brussels, Belgium.


Improving the USPTO-District Court Interface: Private Summit and Public Conference

June 6 – 7, 2011

We focused on two salient issues of great interest to both institutions: (1) the need for greater clarity in the drafting of patent claims; and (2) growth in patent re-examination.  The summit and workshop provided an opportunity for USPTO officials to communicate directly with experienced federal district judges regarding the challenges of interpreting patents and the growth and opportunities for better coordination in the re-examination of patents.


Fourth Annual Privacy Law Scholars Conference

June 2 – 3, 2011

The PLSC assembles 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. The event enhances ties within the privacy law community and facilitates dialogue between the different parts of that community (academy, government, industry and public interest).


National Security and Free Speech: From Wikileaks to the Pentagon Papers

April 28, 2011

BCLT partnered with KQED News, Berkeley Law, and the UC Berkeley School of Information to produce this conference on the Wikileaks saga, which brought new urgency to central tensions between speech and national security, transparency and diplomacy. The event also focused attention on how new technologies, such as cloud computing and social media, further complicate these perennially difficult questions.


NELIC 2011: The New and Emerging Legal Infrastructures Conference

April 15, 2011

It brought together the lawyers, entrepreneurs and technologists who are working to build the next disruptive technologies in the legal industry. The aim of the conference was to provide a meeting point for a deep and substantive discussion about the long-term impact of these technologies, and how they might come to be broadly adapted in the industry as a whole.


Beyond Piracy: Managing IP Risks in the New China

March 10, 2011

This conference examined best practices for avoiding infringement, defending infringement litigation and developing a defensive patent portfolio in China. We also looked at such issues as whether China’s encouragement of indigenous innovation disadvantages foreign companies, the quality of Chinese patents, the use of utility models and design patents and whether “patent trolls” are emerging in China.


47 U.S.C. § 230: a 15 Year Retrospective

March 4, 2011

This symposium celebrated the 15 year anniversary of Congress’ enactment of 47 USC §230, which is widely regarded as the most important Internet-specific law. The symposium brought together some of the key historical figures involved in the development of Section 230 to discuss how we got where we are. The symposium also discussed some of the latest cutting-edge research about Section 230 issues. BCLT co-sponsored this event with the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University Law School.


Technology: Transforming the Regulatory Endeavour – 15th Annual BCLT/BTLJ Symposium

March 3, 2011

This 15th Annual BCLT/BTLJ Symposium addressed the effects of this phenomenon in various areas, including privacy enforcing technologies, voting and intellectual property. In addition to exploring specific contexts in which technology “regulates,” symposium panels addressed thematic issues such as the implications of technological governance for both democracy values and effectiveness concerns. They also addressed the question of who (if anyone) should regulate governance technologies, considering the role of markets, government regulators and standard-setting bodies.


The 6th Hawaii Conference: Emerging Law and Policy Issues of Cloud Computing

February 19 – 21, 2011

BCLT collaborated with the Center for Law and Technology at the Seoul National University on an international conference on cloud computing. The panel topics were based on BCLT’s successful conference on cloud computing.


Fourth Annual BCLT Privacy Lecture: Standardizing Privacy Notices: Privacy Taxonomy, Privacy Nutrition Labels and Computer-Readable Policies

February 17, 2011

Professor Lori Faith Cranor is the director of the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory (CUPS) at Carnegie Mellon University. She has played a key role in building the usable privacy and security research community, having co-edited the seminal book Security and Usability (O’Reilly 2005) and founded the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS).


Browser Privacy Mechanisms Roundtable

February 9, 2011

The Federal Trade Commission preliminary staff report, “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change,” calls generally for privacy by design, and specifically for a do not track (DNT) system to allow consumers to better control online collection of information.  This is a challenging task, because many web interactions require a transfer of information that could be conceived of as “tracking.” This roundtable explored the contours of the regulations needed to effectuate do not track, the technical options to implement it and the political and economic implications of do not track systems.


Silicon Valley Innovation & Law Conference

January 12, 2011

This conference was cosponsored with the law firm of Covington & Burling and provided legal, policy and political insights from technology industry leaders, federal government officials and attorneys on today’s corporate, regulatory and litigation environment.