Dear Students and Faculty, 
 

This week we continue our BCLT Law & Tech Speaker Series with speakers from Ropes and Gray LLP on Thursday, 8/31. Note there is no lunch talk on Tuesday, 8/29. Be sure to attend the Student Activities Fair on Tuesday in the Heyman Terrace and West Courtyard!

 

Click​ ​here​ for full details on all BCLT events and announcements this week.​
 
If you have any questions about this week's content or items for inclusion in future newsletters, please email bclt@law.berkeley.eduAll items for inclusion must be submitted by 12:00 P.M. Friday of the week prior to publication.

 

 

 THIS WEEK

 

 

 

BCLBE/BCLT Leadership Lunch Talk: Michael Yang, Pinterest General Counsel - The Future of Business

 

 

 

 

Monday, August 28, 2017

12:45 P.M. - 1:45 P.M.

Boalt Hall, Room 132

 

A conversation with attorney Michael Yang from Pinterest.

Co-sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology and the Berkeley Business Law Journal.

Lunch provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

Please RSVP here.

 

Student Activities Fair

 

 

Tuesday, August 29, 2017
12:45 P.M. - 2:00 P.M.

Heyman Terrace and West Courtyard
 

Come learn about Berkeley Law’s Student Organizations, SLPS, Journals, and more! 

 

 

BCLT Law & Tech Speaker Series: Ropes & Gray LLP 

 

 

"Hacking the Patent System: Defensive Patent Licensing Options for Innovators"

 

Thursday, August 31, 2017

12:45 P.M. - 1:45 P.M.

Boalt Hall, Room 100

 

Today’s technology companies are faced with the constant threat of patent litigation from competitors and patent trolls. To mitigate these risks, companies are collaborating with each other to find win-win patent licensing arrangements that reduce the threat of patent litigation for everyone. These patent system “hacks” include joining defensive patent aggregators that pool the resources of member companies to challenge patents, and to purchase patents that may have otherwise been purchased by trolls; creating patent pledges, through which companies opt into a network of companies that have pledged not to offensively assert patents against any company that makes the same commitment; and purchasing patent litigation insurance to protect companies from the sudden, unexpected costs associated with patent troll litigation. Ropes & Gray’s Marta Belcher and Carolyn Redding will provide insight into what future technology attorneys need to know about these defensive patent licensing strategies.

Lunch is served for students staying for the entire presentation.

Sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology (BCLT), Berkeley Technology Law Journal (BTLJ), and Patent Law Society (PLS).

This event is open to current Berkeley Law students, Berkeley Law affiliates and BCLT law firm sponsors only.

 

 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

 

 

BCLT/BIPLA: Beyond Snowden: Mass Surveillance in the Shadow of Trump

 

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

5:30 P.M. - 6:30 P.M.

Boalt Hall, Room 105

 

Timothy Edgar left his job at the ACLU and joined the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where he worked as a privacy officer inside America’s massive surveillance state. His new book, Beyond Snowden, explains how leaks of top secret documents led to reforms that made the National Security Agency more transparent, more accountable, more protective of privacy—and, contrary to conventional wisdom, more effective. While the reforms implemented by the Obama administration were a good first step, the United States still leads the world in mass surveillance. Edgar, now a Senior Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute, will explain how the the US can lead the world in surveillance reform.

 

Pizza and sodas will be served on a first-come, first-served basis for those staying the entire
presentation.

Co-sponsored by Berkeley Center for Law & Tech (BCLT) and Berkeley Information Privacy Law Association (BIPLA).

This event is open to current Berkeley Law students, Berkeley Law affiliates and BCLT law firm sponsors only.

 

 

LAW AND TECH OPPORTUNITIES

 

 

 

2L Summer 2018 Internship Program - U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Chief Counsel

 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking expressions of interest from current second-year law students for paid summer intern positions in its Office of Chief Counsel during the summer of 2018. At this time, FDA’s Office of Chief Counsel is seeking expressions of interest (consisting of a cover letter, resume, and transcript) for these positions. Although it is not necessary to submit an expression of interest in order to be considered for these internships, interested students may send a cover letter, resume, and transcript by September 22, 2017, to OCOCCAttorneyAPP@fda.hhs.gov (and designate SUMMER INTERN 2018 on the subject line).

 

The positions will be formally announced on USAjobs.gov in early October. Candidates

must apply through USAjobs.gov. Students who submit expressions of interest to the e-mail

address listed above will receive an e-mail notifying them when the positions are announced on

USAjobs.gov. Please be aware that the timeframe for submitting applications through

USAjobs.gov is short, and we will not be able to accept any additional applications once the

posting closes on USAjobs.gov.

 

Interested students should email a cover letter, resume, and transcript by September 22, 2017, to OCOCCAttorneyAPP@fda.hhs.gov (and designate SUMMER INTERN 2018 on the subject line). All interested applicants will need to formerly apply through the posting on USAjobs.gov, which will be available in early October.

 

If you have questions, please contact Associate Chief Counsel, Tiffany M. Nichols, Esq., tiffany.nichols@fda.hhs.gov.

 

 

Yale Law Journal Student Essay Contest

 

The Yale Law Journal is excited to announce its first Student Essay Competition. The Competition is open to law students and recent law graduates nationwide. Up to three winners will be awarded a $300 cash prize. Winning submissions will be published in the Yale Law Journal Forum, YLJ’s online component. All Forum pieces are fully searchable and available on LexisNexis and Westlaw, as well as on our website.

Competition Topic: Emerging Issues in Law and Technology

The goal of this competition is for the next generation of legal scholars and practitioners to reflect on emerging legal problems and challenges. Submissions must thus focus on novel issues in law and technology, broadly conceived. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: artificial intelligence, bioethics, biotechnology, copyright, cybersecurity, digital speech, food and drug law, health law, Internet law, patent law, privacy, and surveillance. We welcome topics in other related areas as well, and hope to receive both clinical and academic submissions.

Eligibility and Submission Details

The competition is open to all current law students (Classes of 2018, 2019, and 2020) from any ABA-accredited American law school as well as recent graduates (Classes of 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017). Each individual may submit only one (previously unpublished) Essay, and Essays may not be submitted to other law reviews during the judging period.

The deadline for submissions is October 1, 2017. Submissions must be no longer than 5,000 words, including footnotes. Essays must be submitted via the YLJ online submissions portal. A selection committee from Volume 127 of the Yale Law Journal will consider all submissions anonymously. Winners will be announced by November 10, 2017

For more details on submissions, see here.

 

Free Membership in Caifornia Bar Sections

 

Did you know that, even before you pass the bar, even as a 1L, you can join the IP Section of the California State Bar for free. This allows you to stay abreast of programs, legal developments in the field, and networking events:  http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/0/documents/sections/sections-join-form.pdf

 

 

 

ACADEMIC OFFERINGS

 

 

 
The Future of Digital Consumer Protection
 

The Future of Digital Consumer Protection
Instructor: Prof. Chris Hoofnagle
Mondays, 2-5 pm
Info 290 Section 001


http://classes.berkeley.edu/content/2017-fall-info-290-001-lec-001

 

Digital technologies have brought consumers many benefits, including new products and services, yet at the same time, these technologies offer affordances that alter the balance of power among companies and consumers. Technology makes it easier to deny consumers access to the courts; to restrict well-established customs and rights, such as fair use and the reselling of goods; to manipulate digital fora that provide reviews of products and services; to retaliate against and/or monitor or even extort consumers who criticize them; to engage in differential pricing; to “brick” or turn off devices remotely, to cause systemic insecurity by failing to patch products; and to impose transaction costs in order to shape consumer behavior.

 

Fundamentally, the move to digital turns many products into services. While the law has long comprehensively regulated products under the Uniform Commercial Code and products liability regimes, artifacts and services with embedded software present new challenges. European governments are moving aggressively to establish comprehensive regulations for digital goods. But no such agenda is on the horizon in the United States.

 

This course will employ a problem-based learning method (PBL). Students in the course will work in small groups to generate hypotheses, learning issues, and learning objectives in digital consumer protection. Through this process we will develop a high level conception of consumer protection and its goals. We will then explore its fit in the digital realm.

 

Students will develop short presentations on these learning objectives to create group learning and discussion. For the culmination of the course, students will work together to generate a research agenda for the future of digital consumer protection.

 

Law students are free to enroll using CalCentral and class number 40454.

 

 

UC Berkeley, School of Law 

421 Boalt Hall; Berkeley, CA 94720 

law.berkeley.edu/bclt                                                                                                        

 

 

 

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