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Here are several stories to start your Monday morning with that I was not able to get to last week because of client commitments and some new business opportunities:
The first round of Bilski briefing has been filed with the Supreme Court. Click here for links to the various amici briefs at Patently-O, and here for an analysis of Bilski’s opening brief at BlawgIT.
Victoria Pynchon has an important warning for IP litigators about understanding a client’s insurance coverage at her IP ADR Blog — click here to read the story and here to check out Pynchon’s husband’s new Catastrophic Insurance Coverage Blog. The blog appears to be a good read, but more importantly IP litigators should make sure that they investigate client’s insurance policies early in a case.
William Patry has a new copyright-related blog, Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars. It is a companion to his book of the same name, which is excellent. I had the privilege of receiving an advance copy, which I loved. I will post a review soon. For now though, click here for Patry’s first post on the new blog.
Finally, last Friday, as they were headed into the August recess the Senate confirmed David Kappos as the next Director of the PTO — click here for the PTO’s press release.
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Continue Reading IP News Shorts

A new blog and several stories I have been meaning to get to, but have not had enough time:
* Tom Patterson, from Chicago, has joined the blogosphere with the Emergency Business Litigation blog, another blog by Lexblog. It does not have an IP focus, but some of Patterson’s first post deal with Federal Circuit decisions regarding injunctions in patent cases — click here and here to read them. Welcome to the blogging conversation Tom.
* The IP ADR Blog has an interesting guest post from Robert Rose discussing patent arbitration rules — click here to read the post. Of particular interest, Rose points out the oft forgotten statutory obligation to notify the PTO of any arbitration award, which is made part of the file history.
* Also from the IP ADR Blog, Victoria Pynchon has posted the slides that were the basis of a February 2009 CLE presentation we did about alternative dispute resolution in patent disputes, a valuable tool particularly in difficult economic times. Click here for Pynchon’s post with the slides.
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Continue Reading New Blogs & IP ADR News

I have noticed that my news updates tend to be patent-focused, so today they focus on trademarks and copyrights:
IP Law & Business (subscription required to access the article) has an interesting article in the February/March 2009 issue identifying Justice Ginsburg as the Supreme Court’s “champion of copyright holders” because of recent opinions supporting broader copyrights. The article also identifies Justice Breyer, based on dissents in the same cases, as leading the cause for narrower copyrights. And the article predicts that the Supreme Court is trending toward a narrower view of copyrights.
Seattle Trademark Lawyer Michael Atkins has a timely post (click here to read it) that traces the March Madness trademark back to the Illinois high school basketball playoffs, as early as the 1940s. The NCAA and the Illinois High School Association have since pooled their rights and both have a license to use the marks.
Victoria Pynchon has a great series of posts looking at laches in trademark law based upon a recent Ninth Circuit decision — click here and here.
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Continue Reading Copyright & Trademark News

Here are several items from around the web that are worth your attention:
The latest edition of Doug Lichtman’s IP Colloquium is available here and it is another excellent listen. The program looks at copyright’s statutory damages regime through the lens of music downloading. Lichtman moderates an impressive group of experts and stakeholders in the debate. It would be worth the time, even if CLE credit was not available, but it is.
Congratulations to Victoria Pynchon of the IP ADR Blog and Settle It Now on her move to ADR Services — click here to read Pynchon’s post about the move.
The Alternative Patent Dispute Resolution Project at San Diego’s Thomas Jefferson School of Law has an interesting survey up about how ADR should be used in patent cases. No results yet, but I will discuss them here when they are made available. The survey follows up a survey done ten years ago by IPWatchdog’s Gene Quinn. Click here to take the survey.
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Continue Reading IP News: ADR & Copyright Damages

IPWatchdog Gene Quinn recently published his list of the top 26 patent blogs, based upon Technorati rankings (Quinn only considered blogs in the top 1M of the Technorati rankings) — click here to read Quinn’s post. Quinn manually determined which blogs counted as patent blogs, and did nice work. Although I would add the IP ADR Blog to the list. While I do not place much weight in blog rangings, the list identified a few new blogs that I plan to follow, and it is gratifying to see that the Chicago IP Litigation Blog has a strong reader base in the patent world.
Here are Quinn’s rankings:
Patently-O – Technorati Rank 21,202
Patent Baristas – Technorati Rank 61,134
IPWatchdog – Technorati Rank 80,245
Against Monopoly – Technorati Rank 80,245
Patently Silly – Technorati Rank 90,082
Chicago IP Litigation Blog – Technorati Rank 117,073
PHOSITA – Technorati Rank 101,726
Spicy IP – Technorati Rank 129,347
PLI Patent Practice Center – Technorati Rank 132,753
Duncan Bucknell Company’s IP Think Tank – Technorati Rank 136,348
Patent Prospector – Technorati Rank 152,448
Securing Innovation – Technorati Rank 162,007
Peter Zura’s 271 Patent Blog – Technorati Rank 163,794
The Invent Blog- Technorati Rank 167,214
Promote the Progress – Technorati Rank 198,166
I/P Updates- Technorati Rank 213,371
IP NewsFlash- Technorati Rank 221,777
Orange Book Blog – Technorati Rank 221,777
The IP Factor – Technorati Rank 250,588
Philip Brook’s Patent Infringement Updates- Technorati Rank 273,434
Patent Docs – Technorati Rank 300,413
Antiticpate This! – Technorati Rank 351,677
Patent Fools (now operated by IPWatchdog.com) – Technorati Rank 351,092
Patentably Defined – Technorati Rank 614,978
Steve van Dulke’s Patent Blog – Technorati Rank 676,101
IP Spotlight – Technorati Rank 752,199
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Continue Reading Most Read Patent Blogs

Along with the IP ADR Blog’s Victoria Pynchon, I am giving an ALI-ABA continuing legal education teleconference discussing alternative dispute resolution as a low-cost alternative for intellectual property disputes — click here to register. The program is at 12 pm CT on this Wednesday, February 18. Here are ALI-ABA’s program highlights:
Why Attend?
In a difficult economy, intellectual property protection and assertion is more important than ever. The combined stressors of a poor fiscal climate and shrinking legal budgets place a significant strain on any business dependent upon IP assets. as companies face difficult economic decisions, it is increasingly difficult to fit the expense and extended uncertainty of copyright, patent and trademark litigation into a forward looking business plan. This one-hour seminar explores the use of alternative dispute resolution as a means of protecting intellectual property and business activity, while minimizing the expense and devotion of time related to traditional IP litigation.
What You Will Learn
This program examines how to move an IP dispute toward alternative dispute resolution; best practices for controlling the expense and length of the process; and best practices for successful alternative dispute resolution. Whether you are an experienced IP practitioner or simply one grappling with IP issues in your general commercial practice, knowing how to offer your clients a wide array of ADR options might make the difference between a practice that survives and one that thrives. The seminar will cover the following topics:
How to choose between litigation and ADR.
The most successful strategies for guiding your dispute into the best ADR forum at the most productive time.
The five basic rules of “distributive” or “fixed sum” bargaining that will give you the “edge” in all future settlement negotiations.
The five ways to “expand the fixed sum pie” by exploring and exploiting the client interests underlying your own and your opponents’ legal positions.
The Ten Mediation/Settlement Conference Traps for the Unwary.
Invest just 60 minutes at your home or office to learn about alternative dispute resolution in the IP field from this duo of experts. This audio program comes to you live on Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 12:00-1:00 pm CST, via your phone or your computer. Materials corresponding to the course may be downloaded or viewed online.
Planning Chair
R. David Donoghue, Esquire, Holland & Knight LLP, Chicago, IL
Faculty
Victoria Pynchon, Esquire, Settle It Now Dispute Resolution Services, Beverly Hills, CA
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Continue Reading Continuing Legal Education: Alternative Dispute Resolution in Intellectual Property Cases

Along with the IP ADR Blog’s Victoria Pynchon, I am giving an ALI-ABA continuing legal education teleconference discussing alternative dispute resolution as a low-cost alternative for intellectual property disputes — click here to register. The program is at 11 am CT on February 18. Here are ALI-ABA’s program highlights:
Why Attend?
In a difficult economy, intellectual property protection and assertion is more important than ever. The combined stressors of a poor fiscal climate and shrinking legal budgets place a significant strain on any business dependent upon IP assets. as companies face difficult economic decisions, it is increasingly difficult to fit the expense and extended uncertainty of copyright, patent and trademark litigation into a forward looking business plan. This one-hour seminar explores the use of alternative dispute resolution as a means of protecting intellectual property and business activity, while minimizing the expense and devotion of time related to traditional IP litigation.
What You Will Learn
This program examines how to move an IP dispute toward alternative dispute resolution; best practices for controlling the expense and length of the process; and best practices for successful alternative dispute resolution. Whether you are an experienced IP practitioner or simply one grappling with IP issues in your general commercial practice, knowing how to offer your clients a wide array of ADR options might make the difference between a practice that survives and one that thrives. The seminar will cover the following topics:
How to choose between litigation and ADR.
The most successful strategies for guiding your dispute into the best ADR forum at the most productive time.
The five basic rules of “distributive” or “fixed sum” bargaining that will give you the “edge” in all future settlement negotiations.
The five ways to “expand the fixed sum pie” by exploring and exploiting the client interests underlying your own and your opponents’ legal positions.
The Ten Mediation/Settlement Conference Traps for the Unwary.
Invest just 60 minutes at your home or office to learn about alternative dispute resolution in the IP field from this duo of experts. This audio program comes to you live on Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 12:00-1:00 pm CST, via your phone or your computer. Materials corresponding to the course may be downloaded or viewed online.
Planning Chair
R. David Donoghue, Esquire, Holland & Knight LLP, Chicago, IL
Faculty
Victoria Pynchon, Esquire, Settle It Now Dispute Resolution Services, Beverly Hills, CA
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Continue Reading Continuing Legal Education: IP Alternative Dispute Resolution

Litigators universally struggle to enforce order over complex cases, and patent cases are some of the most difficult. They often include multiple patents, numerous accused products, inventors, experts and often various contracts. Generating systems for both capturing and organizing facts and issues is critical, but difficult. And once you organize it for yourself, you need to find a way to organize it for the Court and then the jury, an even more difficult task.
I have generally used notebooks including marked up copies of the patents, key prior art, any contracts , accused product information and other hot documents. Others use computer programs or even whiteboards. But the Settlement Negotiations Blog (via Vickie Pynchon at the IP ADR Blog) has converted me to mind mapping — click here for the Settlement Negotiations post and here for the IP ADR Blog post. Mind maps allow you to graphically depict all of the critical facts and issues in your case, how they interconnect and to hyperlink to the relevant documents or testimony. And the best part is that you can burn your mind map onto a DVD and offer it to the judge as an aid for resolving summary judgment motions or construing claims. This one graphic depiction of your case with hyperlinks to the evidence could be more powerful than a twenty-five page brief explaining your arguments in detail. Mind maps are excellent tools for creating order from the disorderly facts of a litigation.
Here is an example of what a mind map can look like:
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Continue Reading Creating Order in Complex Litigation

Here are several blog posts that are worth your time on this Monday morning:
* At Deliberations, Anne Reed warns of six mistakes that can derail voir dire — click here to read the post. Anyone who follows Deliberations knows that when Reed discusses voir dire, everyone should listen.
* The Federal Circuit heard oral argument in Tafas v. Dudas last week. Here is some of the commentary: Patent Baristas; Patently-O; PLI Blog;
* At IP ADR Blog, Victoria Pynchon offers to arbitrate your patent case and says under expedited AAA commercial rules you can get a decision within 45 days of selecting the arbitrator — click here to read the post. Amazing, I may try that in the dispute resolution clause of my next license agreement.
* Anyone who read his 2007 NYC Marathon Blawg Review will not be surprised that Eric Turkewitz’s post-Thanksgiving Blawg Review last week at his New York Personal Injury Law Blog was one of the best of the year — click here to read it.
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Continue Reading IP Legal News

Diane Levin hosted this week’s Blawg Review #181 at Mediation Channel — click here to read it. As you would expect from one of Ed.’s Blawg Review Sherpas, the Review is both well-written and exhaustive. Levin’s focus was International Conflict Resolution Day. And when Ed. realized that he had created an international incident by not acknowledging Canadian Thanksgiving, Levin even updated the Review with some Canadian content. By the way, happy Thanksgiving to the Blog’s Canadian friends and readers.
Among other posts, Levin highlighted the October Carnival of Trust, hosted by its founder Charles Green at Trust Matters — click here to read it. Green links to a post at Without Wax about what to do when your trust in someone begins slipping away — click here to read it. The blog, and the post, appear to be focused more on family and friend relationships. But the issue and the proposed resolution translate to the legal realm because trust is paramount in the law just as it is with family and friends — with courts, with opposing counsel, with clients and with colleagues. Without Wax suggests that instead of pulling back when trust is disappearing, you engage that person and the problem. Silence rarely fixes trust. You are far better off facing the issue and trying to fix the problem so that it does not recur, whether it is a misunderstanding or an actual breach of trust.
Finally, Larry Lessig’s enthralling Wall Street Journal op-ed piece about the current state of copyright law and whether it fits with modern life did not make the Review (probably because it was not a blog post), but it is worth a read — click here for Lessig’s op-ed. Or you could skip right to Victoria Pynchon’s excellent analysis at the IP ADR Blog — click here to read Pynchon’s post.
[UPDATE]: Lessig makes clear at his Lessig 2.0 blog that despite the title the WSJ gave his op-ed — A Defense of Piracy — he does not support piracy. Lessig is proposing conforming copyright law to what he sees as the realities of modern living.
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Continue Reading Blawg Review #181 — ADR & Canadian Thanksgiving