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2017-2018 Center Events

IP PLI Patent Bar Review

w/ Eugene Quinn, IP Watchdog & John White, Berenato & White, LLC/Practising Law Institute
August 1-5, 2017

The PLI Patent Bar Review will cover all material in the current patent examination (i.e., the same current MPEP and Supplementary Materials), but will additionally cover the materials set forth in the 35 USC 101-related “Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance and Training Materials” for PTO Examiners. Since 2010, the law related to patent-eligible subject matter has undergone a significant revision by virtue of various Supreme Court decisions. The PTO Exam will now test that revision as reflected in the guidance and training materials that the PTO has provided its examiners. We already cover those cases in this review, so there’s no new law or cases really being added to the exam, but we are updating our materials and lectures, and adding new questions, to incorporate this new testable material. Speakers include Eugene R. Quinn, Jr., President and Founder, IP Watchdog, Inc., and John M. White, Director, Patent Professional Development, Practising Law Institute; Berenato & White, LLC

International Patent Prosecution & Practice

Co-organized with the World Intellectual Property Organization and Kuhnen & Wacker
September 14-15, 2017

The International Patent Prosecution and Practice is a two-day, comprehensive CLE program that brings together seasoned experts to provide instruction on the issues of contemporary significance when seeking to obtain patent rights under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and the European Patent Convention (EPC), as well as enforcing such patent rights. The program is provided by the World Intellectual Property Organization and Kuhnen & Wacker and is co-hosted by The John Marshall Law School.

Faculty Scholarship Roundtable Series: Professor Edward Lee, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law

“Tam, Trademarks, and the First Amendment”
October 3, 2017 | 4 p.m.

In this presentation, Professor Edward Lee, Director of the Program in Intellectual Property Law at IIT Chicago-Kent Colloge of Law, analyzes the Matal v. Tam decision, the first time that the Supreme Court has ever recognized a First Amendment violation from a federal intellectual property law. How will the case affect the Redskins case, the Lanham Act’s bar on scandalous marks, and other aspects of trademark law? More generally, is the Tam decision a significant free speech precedent for trademark and other IP law? Professor Lee’s presentation examines the importance and likely impact of the Tam decision on trademark law and First Amendment jurisprudence.

2017 USPTO China IP Roadshow

“IP Protection in China—What Companies in the ‘Heart of America’ Need to Know”

Co-organized by the Chinese IP Resource Center and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
October 20, 2017 | 8:30 a.m.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and The John Marshall Law School are teaming up to bring policymakers and thought leaders from the U.S. government, academia, and private enterprise together to share their insights on critical issues involving China IP. This one-day program is part of the USPTO China team’s nationwide efforts to help U.S. businesses and inventors better understand how they can obtain and enforce IP rights in China. Home to the only Chinese IP Resource Center of its kind, The John Marshall Law School has been educating Chinese patent examiners and practitioners since 1994.

61st Annual Intellectual Property Conference

“Current Developments in Intellectual Property, Information Technology & Privacy Law”
November 3, 2017 | 8:15 a.m.

The John Marshall Law School is proud to present its 61st Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference. This one-day conference covers developments in patent, trade secrets, and antitrust; trademarks, copyrights, First Amendment, right of publicity, and entertainment; and information technology and privacy law. In 2017, the conference is moving from principally single-speaker sessions to panels, with plenty of time for discussions and questions from the audience. As part of the new format, the conference will feature a greater mix of expert speakers and thought leaders from government, the judiciary, corporations, NGOs, academia and, practitioners.

PTAB Bar Association Seminar

December 6-7, 2017

Details are coming soon.

Classes Without Quizzes: Adjunct Professor Richard Gruner, UIC John Marshall Law School

“Invention, Imagination & Patent Incentives”
February 2, 2018 | 4 p.m.

In this presentation, Adjunct Professor Richard Gruner, former Director of John Marshall’s Center for Intellectual Property Law, addresses three things: imagination, invention, and shaping patent law incentives. These seemingly disparate topics are actually linked subjects. Three insights provide the links and are the topics of this talk. First, imagination is subject to predictable flaws, which recent neurological research has helped us to identify and understand. Second, invention is an act of imagination of new tools and the functionality they bring, with such invention subject to the same predictable errors as all types of imagination. Third, patent laws should be crafted to combat these predictable errors in invention processes—that is, with targeted incentives to encourage inventors not to make these errors or to reveal the errors in invention designs as early as possible to ensure that more error-free designs receive patents and are given maximum commercial and public attention.

IP Lecture Series: Christopher V. Carani, McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd

“Design Rights: Functionality & Scope of Protection”
March 22, 2018 | 4 p.m.

Since the landmark Apple v. Samsung design patent case of 2012, the protection of designs has rapidly developed as a distinct and critical area of intellectual property law, important to overall business strategy. Consumers’ appetites for appealing, yet useful, designs have reached an all-time high. To match this increased interest, a better understanding of design law and its underlying policies, including its functionality doctrine, are desperately needed. This presentation discusses the availability of design right protection, including substantive and procedural requirements; strategies to mount, or fend off, challenges to the validity of design rights based on functionality; and how to determine a design right’s scope of protection, including the treatment of any portions of the overall appearance that are old or functionally-driven..

Watch the Presentation Online