Patently-O Bits and Bytes

• PTO General Counsel James Toupin is retiring this week. Raymond Chen is the Deputy GC and Solicitor.
• Next Week's Miami-Based IP Law Summit (March 25-27). Speakers include top IP counsel from Home Depot, Alcoa, Altera, Medtronic, Lenovo, Du Pont, Caterpillar, Coach, Tyco, NBA, Ralph Lauren, Burger King, Kodak, Southwire, Xerox, Darden, Bayer, Harley-Davidson, Boeing, and IBM. I am also speaking as are Robert Stoll (Commissioner of Patents) and Lynne Beresford (Commissioner of Trademarks). [Link]
• Corporate IP Counsel Summit (April 27-28) in New York. Speakers include Patently-O contributors David Boundy (Cantor Fitz), Charles Macedo, Bruce Pokras (Pfizer), Tim Wilson (SAS), and myself. Others speakers are coming from the NFL, NBC, AT&T, Motorola, Kodak, Siemens, Raytheon, Go Daddy, ICANN, Purdue, IBM, Thomson Reuters, New Balance, etc. (Use code FCZ835 when registering for a $500 discount). [Link]
• GWU is hosting excellent patent law symposium on May 11, 2010 with Chief Judge Michel, PTO Director Kappos and former Director Dickinson, Judges Fogel, Huff & Ericksen, Professors Duffy and Whealan, and top IP counsel from SAP, Motorola, Microsoft, Eli Lilly, Caterpillar, etc. [Link]
• 2010 Midwest IP Institute on May 7, 2010 in Overland Park, Kansas with former PTO Director Bruce Lehman, Professor David Hricik, Steve Kunin and Ken Germain. Sponsored by the Kansas Bar Ass'n.
• 110 Year Patent: Last week's Amazon 1-Click post included a typo suggesting that the patent would expire in the year 2107 (instead of 2017). Several readers wrote-in with corrections including one who questioned: "Is this is a typo or is it Patent Reform?"
• From its founding, the Franklin Pierce Law Center has focused on teaching patent law and training future patent attorneys. The law school today announced that it is merging with the University of New Hampshire and will become the University of New Hampshire School of Law. The school plans to maintain its well known Franklin Pierce brand-name in the IP market for some time. Franklin Pierce is a headline-advertiser on the Patently-O Job Board.
• Darby & Darby is dissolving. Of the "big-five" New York IP Firms, only Kenyon is left.
• Although Not Directly Patent Related, I have really enjoyed reading these working papers by my University of Missouri Law School colleagues:
  • Discriminatory Housing Advertisements On-Line: Lessons from Craigslist by Prof Oliveri (The Fair Housing Act's "current small-landlord exemption should be reconfigured to [also] protect roommates, and therefore to hew more closely to its original purpose.").
  • The Movement Toward Early Case Handling in Courts and Private Dispute Resolution by Prof Lande. Lande's discussion of early case handling methods has clear implications for both patent litigation and patent prosecution.
  • Jurisdictional Discovery in United States Federal Courts by Prof Strong ("the author is unaware of any other legal system that undertakes this type of labor-intensive, adverse proceeding before the jurisdiction of the court is even established").
  • Shadows on the Cathedral: Solar Access Laws in a Different Light by Prof Rule (the law should provide landowners "an alternative means of purchasing solar access rights from neighbors when voluntary bargaining proves unsuccessful").
  • A Reappraisal of Attorneys' Fees in Bankruptcy by Prof Cecil ("This Article proposes a statutory amendment to the Bankruptcy Code that establishes clear guidelines for when debtors' attorneys are entitled to have their fees treated as administrative priority expenses in a bankruptcy proceeding.").
• And another non-patent post from my favorite local food writer Scott Rowson: "So the recipe for no-knead bread in last week's Tribune doesn't actually say 'remove dough from towel before cooking,' so it appears I may be responsible for a few dozen incinerated tea towels around town. Seriously, three people have emailed questions along those lines. So yes, remove the towel from the bread before BAKING IT FOR 45 MINUTES. Failure to do this will cause a fire. Also, shut the oven door after placing the pot inside – I left that out too." [Link]