Chicago IP Attorney & Lawyer : R. David Donoghue : Chicago IP Litigation Blog

Team USA placed an impressive third in the international Patent Cup Regatta, skippered by Chicago patent attorneys Gary Ropski, President of Brinks Hofer, and Leif Sigmond, a former Managing Partner at McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff ("MBHB").  This year's Cup was held in Venice, Italy on the Adriatic Sea.  Ropski's and Sigmond's crew included: Marcus Thymian andMichael Gannon , MBHB attorneys;Derek Minihane , in-house counsel at Intermolecular; andMichael Pophal, in-house counsel at Energizer.  Congratulations Team USA!

The Cup was created in 1989 by a German patent attorney and a French patent attorney to foster camaraderie and relationships among IP lawyers internationally.  The Cup is held in a different country each year, with the host country organizing the event, providing vessels and setting the rules.  Chicago hosted the Cup in 2006, and Ropski's and Sigmond's crew won the Cup that year.

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Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 18, from 3:00 - 4:00 PM, the Chicago-Kent College of Law is hosting its fourth annual Federal Circuit Roundtable.  The Roundtable, composed of former Federal Circuit law clerks, will address the topic, "MedImmune and SanDisk:  Seeking a License Without Getting a Lawsuit."  The scheduled participants are:

• Laura L. Donoghue, Sidley Austin;
  
• Lisa A. Schneider, Sidley Austin;
  
• Jonathan R. Spivey, Foley & Lardner, 
  
• Meredith Martin Addy, Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione;
  
• Laura A. Lydigsen, Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione;
  
• Leonard D. Conapinski, McDermott Will & Emory;
  
• Sasha D. Mayergoyz, Latham & Watkins;
  
• David C. McKone, Latham & Watkins;
  
• Michael R. Weiner, Marshall, Gerstein & Borun; and
  
• Michelle Armond, Marshall, Gerstein & Borun. 

The Roundtable will be moderated by Chicago-Kent Professor Timothy R. Holbrook. 

I will not be able to attend this year's event because I am teaching an IP course at Loyola on Wednesday afternoons, but I can vouch for the program.  It is an hour of excellent insight from former Federal Circuit clerks.  Also, in the interest of full disclosure, my wife (Laura Donoghue) is a roundtable participant.  So, I am biased, but it is still an excellent program.

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The Chicago Sun-Times reported some IP-related news Sunday.  In a piece entitled "Futures Exchanges Fight Back on Patents," the Sun-Times reported that Brinks Hofer, a Chicago IP boutique, filed a petition with the PTO, on behalf of an unnamed client (PTO regulations do not require identification of Brinks's client),  seeking reexamination of patents assigned to Trading Technologies ("TT").  The patents are at issue in a series of Northern District law suits, which have been consolidated to some degree before Judge Moran.  You can read more about the suits in the Blog's archives.  According to the Sun-Times piece, the reexam petition argued that the TT patents were invalid based upon an order-entry system adopted by the Tokyo Stock Exchange several years before the filing dates of the TT patents.  TT responded to the petition's allegations in the Sun-Times piece, saying that the arguments were recycled from the Northern District lawsuits and that the Court was skeptical of the arguments. TT also noted that a trial was set for June 28, just two months away.  Finally, TT pointed out that the majority of reexam petition are granted and said that it "is confident that the validity of its patents will be upheld." 

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