Patent Baristas

The Chisum Patent Academy announced that the next Advanced Patent Law Seminar will be held March 5-7, 2014 at the spectacular 21C Museum Hotel in easily-accessible Cincinnati, Ohio (more venue details below).

Seminar Coverage

On January 10, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in two important patent cases: Limelight Networks v. Akamai Technologies and Nautilus Inc. v. Biosig Instruments.Akamai concerns the problem of multi-actor infringement of method claims. Must the predicate of direct infringement by a single entity be established before inducing or contributory liability can be found? How should claims be drafted to avoid the multi-actor problem? Nautilus explores the viability of the Federal Circuit’s liberal “insolubly ambigous” standard for claim indefiniteness. We will examine Supreme Court precedent that sets forth a surprisingly different standard for claim definiteness. What is the interplay between the definiteness standard and patent claim interpretation? The Supreme Court’s interest in the Akamai and Nautilus cases signals important changes for patent litigation and drafting; we will explore them in detail at our Cincinnati seminar.

The Cincinnati seminar is  expected to include the following topics (and more):

• Supreme Court and Federal Circuit En Banc Review: On Dec. 6, 2013, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in yet another section 101 case, Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l. Will the murky “abstract idea” exception finally be clarified?
• Active Inducement, Method and System Claims, and Joint Infringement: Cases including the Federal Circuit’s DSU (2006) en banc decision and the Supreme Court’s Global-Tech(2011) decision focus on the requirement of scienter (knowledge and/or intent) for indirect infringement, a requirement not applicable to direct infringement.
• Injunctive Relief: The Apple v. Samsung Smartphone Wars. In 2012, the Federal Circuit rendered two important decisions on preliminary injunctions in the context of alleged infringement of Apple’s design and utility patents on smartphones and tablets.
• Patent Practice Gone Wrong: Lessons from Patent Malpractice, Exceptional Case and Rule 11 Sanctions, and Inequitable Conduct Cases: In Gunn v. Minton, 133 S. Ct. 1059 (2013), the Supreme Court held that state courts have subject matter jurisdiction over patent malpractice actions.

Syllabi from all past seminars are available here.

Venue

Located in the center of downtown Cincinnati at 609 Walnut Street, the 21C is a 156-room boutique hotel, contemporary art museum and cultural civic center.

Schedule

The three-day Advanced Patent Law Seminars run from 9 am to 12 noon and 1 pm to 4 pm each day, for a total of 18 seminar hours.

The seminars are limited to ten (10) attendees. To maximize opportunities for discussion and questioning, we conduct the seminars in interactive, round-table style. All sessions are co-taught by Donald Chisum and Janice Mueller.

Credit

This seminar has been approved by the Supreme Court of Ohio Commission on Continuing Legal Education for 18.00 total CLE hours instruction.

Seminar Registration

The registration fee for the three-day Cincinnati 2014 seminar is $2,000 per person.

To register, click here.