ABA-IPL eNews November 2024

November 14-16, 2024

Bright Lights, Big Opportunities: Best Bets in IP, Sports, and Entertainment Law

The ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law and the ABA Forum on Entertainment & Sports Law present Bright Lights, Big Opportunities: Best Bets in IP, Sports, and Entertainment Law— an unparalleled conference experience at Resorts World Las Vegas this fall. The conference will provide legal insights for emerging technologies and new business with dedicated CLE tracks in sports, intellectual property (IP), and entertainment law.

What to Expect:

Dive deep into legal insights across emerging technologies with dedicated Continuing Legal Education (CLE) tracks in sports, intellectual property (IP), and entertainment law.
Capitalize on unique networking opportunities with corporate counsel, leading practitioners, and prominent sponsors in the vibrant city of Las Vegas.
Enjoy exclusive behind-the-scenes activities, including tours of the Sphere and Ainsworth Gaming’s design and manufacturing facilities.

Why Attend?

Golden opportunity for professionals in entertainment, sports law, and intellectual property law to converge, share insights, and learn from the best in the industry.
Enhance your professional knowledge, expand your network, and provide actionable insights that you can apply to your practice or business.
Las Vegas, with its dynamic atmosphere and state-of-the-art venues, offers the perfect backdrop for learning and leisure.

Don’t miss this unique conference experience. Register today!

We gratefully acknowledge our Sponsors:

Diamond Level
- Greenberg Traurig LLP
Gold Level
- Barnes & Thornburg LLP
- Stout
Exhibitor
- Procirrus Cloud Technologies

Sponsorship opportunities are still available. For sponsorship details, please contact [email protected] by October 1.

Mark your calendars

IPLSPRING – 2025 ABA-IPL Section Annual Meeting

April 30-May 2, 2025
Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel
Arlington, VA

Get ready for an enriching experience at IPLSpring! Dive into the latest updates in intellectual property law with two informative days of CLE programming.

But that’s not all! Alongside an impressive lineup of educational sessions, you’ll enjoy engaging luncheons with insightful guest speakers and a line-up of social networking events designed to connect you with industry leaders and peers.

Don’t miss out! Mark your calendars for April 30-May 2, 2025, and stay tuned to the Section website for all the exciting details as they unfold.

Sponsorship Opportunities available!

Sponsors are invited to participate in the IPLSPRING conference. This is a unique opportunity to enhance your brand’s visibility and connect with leaders in the IP law field. By signing up, your brand will be featured in IPLSPRING marketing and publicity efforts, ensuring you reach a broad and engaged audience. Engage with top professionals, showcase your innovations, and create lasting partnerships. Secure your sponsorship today and be part of an event that promises to be impactful and memorable. For more information, contact Christopher Meacham, at [email protected].

ABA-IPL Section co-sponsors IP CLE Conference
(CLE & Ski) in January

January 8-11, 2025

The ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law is happy to once again co-sponsor the IP CLE Conference, January 8-11, 2025 at the Grand Hyatt, Vail, Colorado. Hear from distinguished intellectual property experts including regulators, judges, and in-house counsel in the morning and late afternoon, and enjoy Vail and the world-class slopes during the day.

Expert presenters will engage in lively discussions about the hottest topics in IP law. In addition, two hours of programming for ethics credit will be offered. Topics will cover the range of IP law, including copyrights, trademarks, patents, AI, in-house perspectives, antitrust and IP, and others.

Participants can earn MCLE credit, make connections, and broaden their knowledge. Visit the IP CLE website for program and registration information, and to register.

Chair-Elect invites self-nominations for leadership positions

Section Chair-Elect Rob Lytle is seeking recommendations for appointments to committee and division leadership positions, and liaison positions for the 2025-26 Association year. Section members are invited to nominate themselves or a colleague within the Section to join the Section’s leadership ranks. The work of the Section—and, thus, much of the value of Section membership—comes from volunteering to serve as a member or a leader of one of the Section’s committees or boards, or as a liaison to another entity within the ABA or other external organization.

The Section brings together in a single entity an influential collection of intellectual property lawyers in all areas of IP practice. Participation in a leadership position will enable you to contribute to the evolution of IP law, to develop lasting relationships with others in the field that can lead to professional engagements, and to gain practice knowledge and insights that are unavailable elsewhere.

To volunteer or make a recommendation for a leadership position, complete the online recommendation form.

Copyrights & Emerging Technology Committee

On October 11, the ABA Copyrights & Emerging Technology Committee held a timely discussion on Digital Replicas and AI Policy. The committee was honored to gain insights from Andrew Coffman, Chair of the ABA Deep Fakes Task Force; Chris Katopis, ABA Intellectual Property Legislative Consultant; and Kira Alvarez, ABA Council Member, in a conversation led by Priya Nair, Vice Chair of the ABA Copyright and Emerging Technologies Committee. The discussion featured an overview of digital replicas, legislative proposals, and an examination of current government efforts to approach unauthorized digital replicas. In case you missed it, here are some high-level takeaways:

Proposed laws on digital replicas are rooted in largely fragmented state right of publicity laws
Legislative proposals must distinguish between types of digital replicas. (e.g., unauthorized, beneficial, implicating the First Amendment)
Federal legislation is imminent but may face pressures around First Amendment carve outs and definitions of liability for AI platform providers and their users.

You can access the full recording here.

Looking ahead, the ABA Copyrights & Emerging Technology Committee would like to invite you to the upcoming ABA Copyrights & Emerging Technology Committee session to discuss the U.S. Copyright Office's Ninth Triennial Rulemaking. The session is on November 8 at 4pm EST/1pm PST. Please note that the ABA Copyrights & Emerging Technology Committee meetings occur on the second Friday of each month at 4pm EST/1pm PST.

Zoom link
Meeting ID: 954 9925 8933
Passcode: 473282

Join us for an exciting and interesting discussion!

Section Advocacy

Comments to the USPTO on the 2024 Guidance Update on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility, Including on Artificial Intelligence

On October 6, the Section sent a letter to the USPTO to provide comments on the “2024 Guidance Update on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility, Including on Artificial Intelligence” (“Guidance Update”) issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In the letter the Section noted that it appreciated the inclusion of additional examples intended to assist USPTO examiners in applying the Subject Matter Eligibility (SME) guidance to AI inventions during patent examination. The Section believes that increased examination predictability can best be achieved by providing additional, specific examples to the USPTO examiners. Additionally, the Section noted that it was important that the examples be consistent with Supreme Court and Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit precedent, such as the Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Contour IP Holding LLC v. GoPro, Inc, 113 F.4th 1373 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 9, 2024). In GoPro, the Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s holding that a claim of U.S. Patent 8,890,954 is not patent eligible. The claim in GoPro is directed to a camera and was construed to require a “processor ... configured to record low-and high-quality data streams in parallel, followed by the low-quality data stream's wireless transfer to a remote device.” GoPro at 1379 (emphasis added).

In reversing the district court, the Federal Circuit reasoned that, because the claim requires generating the data streams “in parallel,” rather than, for example, “in sequence,” the claim requires a “specific, technological means ... that in turn provide a technological improvement.” The court noted that “[i]mportantly, .... the claims do not cover other ways that a camera processor might generate multiple video streams.” GoPro at 1379.

In light of this precedential opinion that issued after the USPTO issued its Guidance Update, the Section believes it would be helpful to the USPTO examiners for the USPTO to consider whether the Guidance Update would benefit from further updating in view of GoPro, particularly the analysis of claim 2 of Example 47 and claim 1 of Example 48.

The Section noted that the USPTO should reevaluate the SME of claim 2 and claim 1 of Examples 47 and 48, respectively, in light of GoPro. Visit the advocacy page on the section website to read the complete letter.

Join an ABA-IPL Committees for 2024-2025

All Section members are encouraged to review the committees and select and join those on which they wish to serve, and which are of interest to them. If you are already a member of one of the existing committees, you are carried over as a member in the new association year.

Patents Division

Patent Legislation Committee [join]
International Patent Laws Committee [join]
USPTO Ex Parte Patent and Policy Practice [join]
USPTO Post Grant Patent Practice and Policy Committee [join]
Chemical and Life Science Patent Committee [join]
Patent Litigation Committee [join]
Patent System Planning Committee [join]
High Tech and Software Patent Committee [join]

Trademarks Division

Trademark Legislation Committee [join]
International Trademark Laws Committee [join]
USPTO Trademark Practice and Policy Committee [join]
Trademark Litigation Committee [join]
Trademarks and the Internet Committee [join]
Advertising and Marketing Law Committee [join]

Copyrights Division

Copyright Legislation Committee [join]
International Copyright Laws Committee [join]
Copyright Office Affairs Committee [join]
Visual Arts and Dramatic Works Committee [join]
Copyright and Social Media Committee [join]
Copyright and Emerging Technology Committee [join]
Music and Performing Arts Committee [join]
Copyright Litigation Committee [join]
Literary Works Committee [join]

Specialized IP Law Division

Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee [join]
Antitrust Interface Committee [join]
Trade Secrets and Interferences with Contracts Committee [join]
Design Rights Committee [join]
Privacy and Publicity Rights Committee [join]
Digital Games and New Media Committee [join]
Information Technology Committee [join]
Fashion Committee [join]

Professional Issues Division

Law Practice Management Committee [join]
Pro Bono Committee [join]
Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee [join]
Attorney Wellness Committee [join]

Business and Trade Division

IP Transactions and Licensing Committee [join]
International Trade Commission Committee [join]
China IP Issues Committee [join]
Government IP Rights Committee [join]
Monetization and Valuation of IP Committee [join]
In-House IP Committee [join]
Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Committee [join]

Become a Voting Committee Member for 2024-2025

Take advantage of an opportunity to participate in developing Section policy and sign up as a voting member of your committee. Voting members will be asked to study the policy issues of the committee and vote on the reports in a timely and responsive manner. Any lawyer member of a committee is welcome to sign up to be a voting member of the committee.

Committee members who choose not to enroll as a voting member can still participate in all other committee activities and receive any committee updates and information.

Details of Committee Voting Membership:

Committee members may sign up throughout the entire year. Once a committee begins deliberations on a particular resolution, no new voting members will be allowed to subscribe for the purpose of voting on that particular resolution. The committee chair determines the date on which deliberations have begun.

Members may opt out of being a voting member at any time by notifying the Committee Chair. Those opting out of voting membership will still retain their membership in the committee.

A valid vote on a committee resolution will consist of a majority of a quorum of the voting committee members. There is no upper limit, nor lower limit to the number of people who may subscribe to be voting members on a particular committee.

Only lawyer members of the committee are eligible to be become voting members of the committee.

Voting members will receive a communication from the Committee Chair once voting begins, requesting a vote by a date-certain. Voting members not submitting a vote by a requested date for two successive resolution vote calls will revert to regular membership of the committee, and will need to re-subscribe as a voting member.

The committee rosters, including the roster of voting committee members will roll over to subsequent years. There is no need to re-subscribe as a voting committee member with each new Association year.
Voting members who do not vote two times in a row will be removed from the voting member roster.

Please remember to notify the ABA if your email address changes by logging in to your “myABA” page on the ABA website or calling the ABA Member Service Center at (800) 285-2221.

Stay Connected…

ABA-IPL Action Groups

Access leadership opportunities and amplify your voice by joining and becoming involved in one of the ABA-IPL Section Action Groups. Engage with your peers in one or more Action Groups for immediate networking and leadership opportunities.

Section Action Groups include:

2025 Judicial Intern Opportunity Program Applications Open November 4

The Judicial Intern Opportunity Program (JIOP) is a summer internship program open to all first- and second-year underrepresented law students. Selected students intern for six weeks or more during the summer with a participating state or federal judge. The program makes available a $2,000 award to each selected student. Students can also elect law school credit.

We begin accepting Summer 2025 applications for all students on November 4, 2024. The deadline for applying is January 10, 2025. Last year, we offered internships to 171 law students representing 68 different law schools in locations throughout the country. Our goal is to place 160 students during Summer 2025.

Please pass program information on to your interested students, including a program description and frequently asked questions. To learn more about the program, please see the website at ambar.org/jiop. Links to the application will be available on November 4. Applications are only accepted electronically through the JIOP website. Contact JIOP Program Director Gail Howard with questions.

Donate to the Judicial Intern Opportunity Program (JIOP)

Your donation to the Judicial Internship Opportunity Program (JIOP) helps ensure that funding is available for students who are members of racial and ethnic groups, and others that are traditionally underrepresented in the profession, including students with disabilities, students who are economically disadvantaged, students who identify as LGBT, women, and veterans.

Last year, more than 770 students applied to the program. JIOP placed 186 students with 139 judges. Students placed represented 79 different law schools. The JIOP IP program continues to grow with 28 judges requesting students with background or interest in intellectual property law. 130 of the 770 applicants showed interest with 58 of those students attaching additional background and statements supporting their experience. We placed a total of 32 IP students.

All ABA-IPL Section members are encouraged to show their support and donate to the Judicial Internship Opportunity Program.

Donate to the Foundation for Advancement of Diversity in IP Law

ABA-IPL Section members are encouraged to donate to the Foundation for Advancement of Diversity in IP Law (“the Foundation”, or “FADIPL”) to help support its mission.

The Foundation’s mission is to offer career-preparation, career-readiness, and career-advancement support to individuals who identify as members of racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in intellectual property law profession in the United States.

The Foundation’s Programs work toward:

Recruiting individuals who identify as members of racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in the IP law profession to consider exploring careers in patent law and other areas of IP law.
Providing career-preparation and career-readiness support, as well as financial support, to individuals identified as members of racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in the IP law profession who demonstrate an interest in a career in IP law.
Accelerating the development of a more diverse IP professional community through networking, counseling, and mentoring efforts aimed at fostering career advancement of individuals identifying as members of racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in the IP law profession in the United States.

Individuals interested in donating can visit the FADIPL support page.

Topic Suggestions?

We welcome your feedback on topics you would like to see covered in E-News. Please email Mike Winkler at [email protected] with your suggestions.

New From ABA-IPL Publishing

Section 337 Investigations Before the U.S. International Trade Commission

Part of the What Is series by the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law

What is Trademark - Fifth Edition

Kenneth L. Dorsney and Cortlan S. Hitch, Editors

ABA Bestseller

Fourth editions of this popular series for you and your clients.

What is a Copyright, Fourth Edition

A Comprehensive Patent Practice Form Book

The Practitioner's Guide to the PCT (Second Edition)

Patent Claim Drafting Practice: Tactics, Strategy, and Analysis

ABA membership available for groups

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You may be missing out on important e-mailings from both the ABA and the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law. Please be sure your email address is on file and up-to-date!

By phone: ABA Member Services at 1.800.285.2221 between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., CST

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Online: (1) Go to the ABA homepage (www.americanbar.org), (2) Login, (3) Locate MyABA link (top left of the page), (4) EDIT within the profile module, and (5) update email address .

Section Officers:

Chair

Susan E. McGahan
AT&T
Bedminster, NJ

Chair-Elect

Robert Lytle
Microsoft
Redmond, WA

Vice-Chair

Joshua Simmons
Kirkland & Ellis
New York, NY

Secretary

Paul Morico
Baker Botts LLP
Houston, TX

Financial Officer

Richard Stockton
Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.
Chicago, IL

Revenue Officer

Tammy Pennington-Rhodes
Wenderoth, Lind & Ponack, LLP
Washington, DC

Membership Officer

Rivka Monheit
Pabst Patent Group LLP
Atlanta, GA

Diversity Officer

Nicole D. Galli
ND Galli Law LLC
Philadelphia, PA

Publications Officer

Adrienne R. Fields
The Law Offices of Adrienne R. Fields
New York, NY

CLE Officer

Christopher Ponder
Sheppard Mullin
Palo Alto, CA

Section Delegates to
The House of Delegates

Lisa A. Dunner (2025)
Dunner Law PLLC
Washington, DC

Adriana Suringa Luedke (2026)
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Bethesda, MD

William L. LaFuze (2027)
McKool Smith
Houston, TX

Immediate Past Chair

Steven P. Caltrider
Eli Lilly and Company
Indianapolis, IN

Contact Us

ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law
312.988.6254
[email protected]
www.americanbar.org/iplaw

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