Patent Offices, applicants and other stakeholders around the world are all interested in increasing the efficiency of patent examination, and improving the quality of granted patents. Work sharing programs, such as the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) and the Parallel Patent Grant (PPG) programs, and other fast-track options allowing applicants to obtain expedited examination for certain applications, are critical to achieve such goals. In this sense, the exchange of search results between Patent Offices, for example, or allowing an applicant who receives a positive ruling from a certain Patent Office, to request accelerated prosecution of corresponding claims in another Patent Office, avoids unnecessary workload and duplication of effort, reduces patent backlogs, and also avoids inconsistencies in patentability decisions amongst different Patent Offices.

Since the Supreme Court abrogated the doctrine of “licensee estoppel,” in Lear v. Adkins in 1969, commentators have suggested that “assignor estoppel” should be abrogated for the same reasons. In other words, the public policy that encourages invalidity challenges to eliminate “bad” patents and allow competition free from bad patent monopolies should also kill assignor estoppel. Indeed, after Lear some courts refused to apply assignor estoppel, but the Federal Circuit first found assignor estoppel viable in 1982 and has since continued to apply the doctrine to bar assignors and those in privity with assignors from raising invalidity challenges in district court actions.

Allyship is the practice of promoting and advancing social justice, diversity, and inclusion through supporting members of an oppressed or marginalized group. The third and final part in our three-part allyship series will discuss the learnings from the first two sessions, bringing together different perspectives to provide practical tips for improving allyship personally, organizationally, and systemically.

This webinar will provide an overview of significant IP policy concerns across different countries and regions based on IPO’s comments made during the U.S. Trade Representative’s Special 301 review. The panelists will go around the world in one hour, noting issues that IP practitioners need to be aware of, and pointing out global trends in IP law and policy.

Allyship is the practice of promoting and advancing social justice, diversity, and inclusion through supporting members of an oppressed or marginalized group. In this webinar, the second in a series of three, speakers will focus on why it is imperative that the majority of the lawyer population – cisgender white males – need to be allies to their diverse colleagues and employees.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Intellectual Property (IP) Attaché Program works to improve IP systems and to help U.S. stakeholders internationally. IP attachés directly assist U.S. businesses and advocate to improve IP policies, laws, and regulations abroad.

This webinar is intended to provide an overview of the Madrid System of International Registration of Trade Marks. Trade Mark owners face budget and time limitations when registering and maintaining a Trade Mark portfolio. Speakers will provide an introduction to the international route for registration of Trade Marks, together with various tips and best practices in the making use of the Madrid System.

2020 was a year for the record books at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), which saw landmark decisions at the Federal Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court, revisions to practice and procedures, as well as continued discussion on the constitutionality of PTAB judges. Seasoned practitioners and corporate counsel will discuss 2020’s major developments and how they may impact patent litigation practice going forward before the PTAB and beyond.

The focus of this first allyship webinar will be focused on speakers sharing personal experiences where they experienced good or poor allyship.  The speakers, in the first webinar, will also share practical tips on how to be better allies – especially in the IP field.

This webinar will provide an overview of how videoconferencing is being relied on increasingly for formal hearings at the European Patent Office – for examination, oppositions and appeals – and how this provides an option for applicants/proprietors and opponents to participate or observe from their home countries.

The Federal Circuit decisions in Sanofi v. Watson and Vanda v. Westward provide blue prints for possibly obtaining, based on Phase III clinical trial results, many more years of U.S patent exclusivity. Please join our expert panel of Meg Tomaska of Eli Lilly & Co., Sarah Hooson of Merck & Co. Inc., and Daniela Gill-Carey of UCB Biopharma SRL, moderated by Tom Irving of Finnegan, to learn all about it.

Several recent cases illustrate the complexity of patent rights transfer and licensing. Our panel -- two in-house counsel in different technology sectors and a licensing expert in private practice -- will explain basic principles to help patent owners avoid pitfalls, recognizing that the devil is in the details of any transaction.

While the patent community awaits the resolution of Arthrex with regard to APJs, its applicability to Trademark Trial and Appeal Board judges is a question occupying trademark practitioners. Since Arthrex, at least two unsuccessful litigants before the TTAB have appealed to the Federal Circuit and asked that court to apply Arthrex to hold the appointments process for TTAB judges unconstitutional. Although the Federal Circuit has so far declined to rule on the applicability of Arthrex to TTAB judges’ appointments in those cases, the court will inevitably face that issue, whether in either of the two pending appeals squarely presenting it or in a future one. And, of course, the Supreme Court’s disposition of the questions before it will very likely inform the Federal Circuit’s holdings on the trademark side.

After a new patent law was formally adopted by China's National People's Congress on Oct. 17, many reports described the changes as almost all upside for those who own patents in the country, creating new mechanisms for patent protection and additional scope for damages. But our expert panel -- a global pharmaceutical attorney with long experience of the country, a veteran patent litigator in China, and a USPTO specialist, say to beware of overly upbeat forecasts.

This webinar, which is free for IPO members, is co-hosted by IPO’s U.S. Post Grant Patent Office Practice and Next Generation Leaders Committees. U.S Post Grant Patent Office Practice Committee Co-Vice Chair TODD WALTERS (Buchanan Ingersoll) will moderate a discussion with PTAB Judge JANET GONGOLA and Acting Vice Chief Judge KALYAN DESHPANDE, who will provide an update on the results of the first months of the program. The panel will also include TIMOTHY TANG (Sterne Kessler), an outside counsel who has participated in the LEAP program, and Next Generation Leaders Committee Co-Chair KAVEH RASHIDI-YAZD (Siemens Energy Corp.), an in-house decision maker who will discuss the benefits of this type of professional development opportunity for corporate clients.