The American Bar Association’s Outsourcing Task Force is conducting a survey on outsourcing. The objective of the Task Force, at the Request of ABA President-Elect Steve Zack, is a Report with Recommendations to the House of Delegates on the subject at next year's Annual Meeting.

An important means of collecting input from a broader cross section of the ABA is an online survey, which can be accessed at:  http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229LAVJNGRM.

As input from the broadest possible range of American lawyers is critical, the Task Force would greatly appreciate if every member could take a moment to complete this survey.

Immediate Past Section Chair Gordon Arnold is a member of the Task Force and serves as its Liaison to the Section of Intellectual Property Law. He strongly encourages all to complete this survey.

Registration for 25th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference
Is Now Open

Online registration for the 25th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference is now available at www.abanet.org/intelprop/spring2010. All Section members are encouraged to participate and register for the the conference, which features 2-1/2 days of CLE programming, committee roundtables, networking opportunities, and a special 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner Dance. Watch the Section website for complete program schedule and information as it becomes available in the coming weeks.

ABA-IPL Nominating Committee Welcomes Suggestions

The Nominating Committee, appointed by Section Chair Don Martens, welcomes suggestions of members for nominees for the 2010-2011 ABA year for the offices of Chair-Elect, Vice Chair, Secretary, Financial Officer, Publications Officer, Membership Officer, Section Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates (term expiring in 2013), and four new members of Council for four-year terms expiring in 2014. Under the Section Bylaws, Section Chair-Elect Marylee Jenkins will automatically assume the office of Section Chair on September 1, 2010.

The nominees will be voted on at the Section’s business meeting, Saturday, August 7, 2010, at the ABA Annual Meeting at the InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco.

E. Anthony Figg, Chair
Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, PC
202-783-6040
Fax: 202-783-6031
efigg@rothwellfigg.com

Pamela Banner Krupka
Krupka Law Group, P.C.
310-889-1990
Fax: 310-889-1995
pbk@krupkalaw.com

Lisa Dunner
202-298-6002
Fax: 202-403-3030
ldunner@dunnerlaw.com

Ralph Oman
202-261-3339
Fax : 202-261-3333
roman@law.gwu.edu

Mark Whitaker
202-383-7222
Fax : 202-318-8723
whitakerm@howrey.com

Don’t Miss These Upcoming CLE Teleconferences

(To register for these ABA-IPL CLE  teleconferences visit www.abanet.org/cle/calendar.html)

Tuesday, Dec. 1
1:00 - 2:00 pm ET
The Google Book Settlement - Where Are We? 
(The first in a series of teleconferences, the Landslide Teleconference Series,  inspired by a current article from the Section’s flagship magazine, Landslide ® . Read the article from Landslide’s September/October issue “Fair or Foul? The Unanswered Fair Use Implications of the Google Library Project”.)

Nearly a year has passed since Google and the representatives of two classes of plaintiffs - authors and publishers - announced a settlement over Google’s alleged copyright infringement in its ambitious Library Project. Numerous objections have arisen over the the proposed settlement terms, not only from authors and publishers who are not represented in the settlement negotiations, but also from the Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ’s objections focus principally on compliance with class action civil prodedure (FRCP 23) and antitrust concerns. This one hour program will address these two aspects of the settlement, and the speakers will opine on the merit and weight of these concerns. The program will also cover the international and domestic policy implications of the settlement, which has drawn objections from certain foreign rights-holders and policymakers. The settlement seems likely to influence the future direction of the U.S. copyright policy debates, including the long debate over a potential orphan works amendment to the Copyright Act, all of which will be covered by the speakers. 

Monday, Dec. 16
1:00 - 2:30 pm ET
The State of Patent Damages Law After Lucent v. Gateway

“Mr. Lincoln’s Patent” video podcast available

“Mr. Lincoln’s Patent”, a program held at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago, is available to watch at no charge on the Section website. Find the link to the video on the Section homepage. The program takes a 21st century look at the patent Abraham Lincoln received for an innovation that lifts boating vessels over sandbars, and includes a discussion of whether Lincoln would be considered a non-practicing entity today. The program was produced as a part of the Lincoln Bicentennial. Dan Stowell, Director of The Papers of Abraham Lincoln organization, is a featured speaker on the panel.

Sign up to be a voting member of your committee today!

Become an ABA-IPL Committee Voting Member

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 that choose not to enroll as a voting member can still participate in all other committee activities and receive any committee 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.

Join a Section Committee for the 2009-2010 Association Year

Committee activity is the engine that drives the Section. Section members are encouraged to participate more fully in Section activities by joining one or more of our more than 60 committees, each dealing with a special aspect of the law as it relates to intellectual property under the statutes, common law and the provisions of international treaties. The Committees are organized into eight major divisions in order to deal most effectively with the extensive, highly specialized matters that command Section attention. To review the committees’ scopes and activities, visit the committees page on the Section website at www.abanet.org/intelprop/committees.html, and locate a division and click on that division, which will bring up a list of committees in that division. To join a committee online, click on that committee’s page, and then locate the “Join Our Committee” link on that page.

More than just continuing legal education... a unique IP experience

Watch for complete conference and registration information on our website as it becomes available.

25th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference

Online registration now open

25 years of providing quality CLE programming on the most recent developments in IP law.