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

Here are several items that did not necessarily warrant a separate post, but are worth some attention:

• Chicago blogger Evan Brown of Internet Cases recently participated in episode 16 of the This Week in the Law podcast with law blog luminaries Denise Howell (the host), Nicole Black, Marty Schwimmer and Ernie Svenson -- click here for Brown's post and a link to the podcast. Their lively discussion included numerous IP topics including: 
  • DMCA anticircumvention provisions;
  • ediscovery; and
  • the Viacom v. Google discovery issues (the parties ultimately agreed that the compelled user data could be produced anonymously).
    
• Mike Atkins did a great series of post comparing the benefits of state and federal trademark registration -- click here and here for the posts.  These posts are a great primer, if you want to understand the differences between and trade offs for state versus federal registration.
  
• The John Marshall Law School has been included in the PTO's new Law School Clinic Program.  Beginning this fall, second and third year John Marshall students will represent inventors in actual PTO proceedings.  This is a great opportunity for both the students and the inventors.  Click here for John Marshall's press release about the new program.

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On Wednesday, August 13 at noon CT, I am giving a teleseminar with Evan Brown (a fellow Chicagoan who writes the insightful Internet Cases blog) and Professor Eric Goldman (who writes the excellent Technology & Marketing Law Blog) discussing the current state of the Communication Decency Act's Good Samaritan clause.  The seminar will focus on, among other things, the Roommates decision in the Ninth Circuit -- click here for Goldman's posts on the case -- and the Craigslist decision from the Seventh Circuit (upholding a Judge St. Eve opinion) -- click here for the Blog's posts about that case and here for Brown's posts. 

Click here for ALI-ABA's web brochure about the seminar.  It promises to be an interesting discussion with lively debate.  And ALI-ABA has generously offered a $30 discount off of the seminar's $149 cost for Blog readers that use this code:  TSPV02DD.

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One of our personal favorites, Evan Brown's InternetCases, provides timely analysis of recent cases from the perspective of a practicing attorney.  In the last week alone, Mr. Brown has posted analysis of a website copyright infringement case decided by the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, a cyber-stalking decision from the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and a case applying the Rule Against Perpetuities to a software distribution agreement.

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Tomorrow I will be back to case analysis, but there is some Northern District news and some excellent IP and litigation blog posts worth reading, here they are:

• Ninth Annual Pro Bono and Public Interest Awards -- The Northern District and the Federal Bar Association are seeking nominations for excellence in pro bono and public interest work. Nominations should be based upon work performed in civil cases before the Northern District which are no longer pending. Send nominations by March 28 to:

Amy Rettberg, Executive Law Clerk
Email: amy_rettberg@ilnd.uscourts.gov
Chambers of the Chief Judge James F. Holderman
219 South Dearborn Street, Suite 2548
Chicago, Illinois 60604

• Patent Reform is Moving Forward -- The Senate is preparing to vote on the Patent Reform Act after its spring recess (yes, it is spring already in DC).  Here is some additional coverage of the Act's status:

271 Patent Blog -- looking at the latest amendments to the Act.

Maryland Intellectual Property Blog -- looking at the latest amendments and questioning whether proponents have the sixty votes necessary for cloture, thereby avoiding a filibuster.

Patent Docs -- taking sides, but asking you to call your Senators regardless of which side you take.

• Check out the newest entry to Chicago's law blog scene, the Lean & Mean Litigation Blog.  It is not IP-focused, but it is an interesting read for any commercial litigator or litigant.
  
• William Patry at Patry on Copyright has an interesting post about the difficulties of serving corporate entities based upon a District of the District of Columbia case involving a pro se plaintiff.  The best advice, of course, is to hire counsel because if you do not get the party served properly, you have no case.
  
• The Seventh Circuit affirmed Judge St. Eve's ground breaking opinion in the CLC v. Craigslist case.  The Seventh Circuit held that an ISP is exempt from cases based upon user content when the case attempts to treat the ISP as a publisher of the content.  This is considerably narrower than most of the other circuits, which have held that Section 230 exempts ISPs from essentially all suits based upon user content.  For more coverage, check out the WSJ Law Blog (which erroneously elevates Judge St. Eve to the Seventh Circuit), Internet Cases, and the Technology & Marketing Law Blog (very detailed analysis of Judge Easterbrook's opinion).
  

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I will be speaking with the Chicago Bar Association's Cyberlaw & Data Privacy Committee tomorrow, Tuesday, February 19 at noon.  My presentation is titled:  “Northern District of Illinois Cyberlaw Trends."  If you are in Chicago tomorrow, please join us.  The event is being held at the Chicago Bar Association building, 321 S. Plymouth.  If you cannot make it, I will post the slides later this week and I understand that the Chicago Bar Association will post it as a podcast.  It will not be the same as what I hope will be a highly interactive presentation, but I will post the slides later this week and a link to the podcast when it is available.

Thanks again to Evan Brown and his Internet Cases blog for the opportunity.

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I am throwing caution to the wind* and giving a presentation titled Northern District Cyberlaw Trends to the Chicago Bar Association's Cyberlaw & Data Privacy Committee, thanks to a request from Evan Brown on his excellent Internet Cases blog.  I am going to discuss some of the major Northern District cyberlaw cases and opinions from 2007, including the Craigslist case, and discuss trends that can be seen from them. 

If you are available February 19 at noon, join us at the Chicago Bar Association building 321 S. Plymouth.  If you cannot make it, I will post about the content of my presentation after the 19th.

*  Washington DC attorney Eric J. Menhart has filed a trademark application for the use of cyberlaw in connection with legal services.  Not surprisingly, the blogs have a lot to say about it.  Check out Blawg IT, Electronic Frontier Foundation and GrokLaw. 

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