Here are a few stories and announcements from the Chicago IP world:
Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP has launched a new blog: Practical Ediscovery. The blog is written by a team of the firm’s attorney and focuses on practical considerations and approaches for handling issues arising with the production of electronically stored information. Check out Evan Brown’s first post here.
Anne Reed has a post that every patent litigator should read at Deliberation — click here to read it. Reed looked at the issue of ho and hen to introduce technical jargon to juries. Reed makes to important points: 1) trust juror’ intelligence, people like to learn; and 2) despite that, do not teach the jargon both unless and until it is relevant to the jury.
There is an interesting new paper out arguing for a revised venue statute by Sidney Rosenzweig, a visiting fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation. Rosenzweig argues for the following rewording of the venue statute:*
Notwithstanding subsection 1391(c) of this title, any civil action for patent infringement may be brought against a corporation only in a judicial district:
(1) where the defendant has its principal place of business or where the defendant is incorporated;
(2) where the defendant has committed a substantial portion of the acts of infringement and has a regular and established physical facility that it controls;
(3) where any defendant has committed a substantial portion of the acts of infringement and has a regular and established physical facility that it controls, if there is no other district in which the action may be brought under subsections (1) or (2); or
(4) where any defendant has its principal place of business, where any defendant is incorporated, where any defendant may be found, or where any defendant has committed acts of infringement, if there is no other district in which the action may be brought under subsections (1), (2) or (3).
* Click here to read the report. And a hat tip to Peter Zura for identifying the paper.

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Here are several Chicago-area intellectual property CLEs that look like worthwhile programs:
The next installment on the Chicago IP Colloquium is February 24, at Chicago-Kent, Room 305. Professor Anupam Chander, UC Davis School of Law, will discuss his paper: Youthful Indiscretion & Digital Memory.
On February 27, John Marshall is hosting its 53rd annual Intellectual Property Law Conference. The day-long program has two tracks: 1) patents; and 2) trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. The program is full of interesting presenters, including Internet Cases’ Evan Brown — click here for a preview of his presentation regarding open source disputes.

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Please join me this Friday, January 23 at the Chicago Bar Association’s annual Practice Management and Legal Technology Conference. I will be presenting from 1:30-2:30 CT with Evan Brown of Internet Cases fame. We will be discussing the broad topic of using the internet and social media, in particular blogs, to network and develop your practice. The conference promises to be a great day of learning about new technologies from a wide array of experts. The cost is $99 dollars for CBA members and $199 for non-members both pay an extra $10 for registration at the event. Click here for more information on the seminar and registration forms.

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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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Blawg Review #167 is up at the E-Commerce Law blog — click here to read the Review. The theme, in honor of America’s birthday, is the fifty blogging stars of the fifty states. IP blogs had a reasonably large presence, including Illinois’s star, Evan Brown’s excellent Internet Cases blog:
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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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.

Continue Reading Tomorrow: Northern District Cyberlaw Trends

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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