IP Business Congress 2009 comes to Chicago in about two weeks, June 21-23, 2009 — click here for registration information. In honor of such an impressive group of IP lawyers coming to Chicago, I am hosting Meet the Bloggers VI on Tuesday evening June 23 starting at 5pm.
The IPBC is at the beautiful Four Seasons Chicago, but in order to make sure that attendees get a well-rounded taste of Chicago, Meet the Bloggers VI will be held at the world famous Billy Goat Tavern. The Billy Goat is just down and below the street from the Four Seasons at 430 N. Michigan Avenue. Go to the Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue and take the stairs below the sidewalk to find the Billy Goat. Those who have a long history in the IP blogosphere will remember that the Billy Goat was also the site of Meet the Blogger III (I am on the left side of the second picture). Also, I want to thank Meet the Blogger creator and Meet the Blogger III host John Welch of the TTABlog for allowing me to use the Meet the Blogger name.
I am not making any promises, but I am hopeful that if you attend you will meet Chicago legal blogging luminaries such as Internet Cases; Chicago Law (an excellent new blog by the Chicago Tribune’s Ameet Sachdev); the anonymous Editor of Blawg Review; Cyberlaw Central; and 12:01 Tuesday. and the 271 Patent Blog.

Continue Reading Cheezborger! Cheezborger! No Fries . . . . Meet the Bloggers VI

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.

Continue Reading IP Legal News

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.

Continue Reading Upcoming Chicago IP CLE

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.

Continue Reading CLE: Better Practice Management Through Technology

I am a little late to this story, but before Thanksgiving the new e-Justice Blog published a list of the top 50 internet and digital law blogs — click here for the list. I am honored that this blog made the e-Justice list, especially when you look at the other blogs on the list. Here are some of the blogs, listed by e-Justice’s categories:
Academic Blogs
Berkman Center for Internet and Society
Stanford Center for Internet and Society
Law Blog (John Marshall’s own Prof. Sorkin)
Lessig
Eric Goldman’s Technology & Marketing Law Blog
Copyright, Intellectual Property and Defamation
The Trademark Blog
Internet Law – Copyright Law
New Media and Digital Law
New Media and Technology Law Blog (another LexBlog creation)
Silicon Valley Media Law Blog
Firms & Lawyers
Technology, eBusiness and Digital Media Law Blog (another LexBlog creation)
Internet Law Attorney Blog
Ernie the Attorney
Internet Cases
News and Business
Gahtan’s Technology and Internet Law Blog
Technology and Marketing Law Blog
DennisKennedy

Continue Reading Top 50 Internet & Digital Law Blogs

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.

Continue Reading IP Legal News

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.

Continue Reading Communications Decency Act Seminar

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.

Continue Reading 50 Stars of the 50 States: Blawg Review #167

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).

Continue Reading Northern District & IP News: Pro Bono & Patent Reform

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