Monday Miscellany

Events

Amsterdam, 3 May 2018: European Practice Committee is organising a conference entitled “The Very Essence of Romance is Uncertainty”. Panel topics include: current legislative and juridical trends in the US; present and future of discovery and trade secrets; what future does the UPC hold for us; and IP and legal tech.  There will be a networking reception immediately following the conference.  Click here to view the full program. Registration fees are 250$ for IPO members, 350$ for non-IPO members. Registration can be done here.

AstraZeneca is delighted to be hosting the Cambridge edition of the AIPLA Women In Intellectual Property Law Global Networking Event, in conjunction with IP Inclusive. The event will be held at on 9 April 2018 at Academy House, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8PA and will be an excellent opportunity to hear from two fascinating speakers, Rebekah Martin, Deputy General Counsel at AstraZeneca, who will talk about the challenges faced by a large multinational company when preparing for Brexit, and Christine Martin, an Investment Manager at Cambridge Enterprise. Free registration is available here.

The Managing Intellectual Property Life Sciences Forum returns for its second year in London on 24 April 2018. This year the programme addresses such pertinent topics as the doctrine of equivalents and the impact of the decision across the European portfolios; application of issues surrounding the use of Arrow declarations; and patent protection strategies involving divisionals. More information and registration platform may be found here.

Now in its 17th year, C5’s annual Pharmaceutical Patent Term Extensions forum will return to Munich on 19-20 June 2018 to provide guidance and relevant updates on the key issues affecting pharmaceutical lifecycles in Europe and internationally. Check out the agenda and register.

Announcement

The USPTO recently released three requests for information (RFIs) as part of its market research in support of the Joint Strategic Plan issued by the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC). The RFIs are intended to identify organisations and individuals who can perform survey studies that document the current state of knowledge in one or more of the following areas of intellectual property enforcement: trade secrets, counterfeit goods, and commercial scale piracy. The response deadline is 11 April 2018.

Webinars

Fully charged tekkie

Dixit Curia provides an up-to-date overview of all relevant CJEU and GC case law regarding the distinctiveness of a 3D trademark and the criteria taken into consideration for likelihood of confusion between trademarks. Join on 12 April 2018. Register here.

Intellectual Property Owners Association invites readers to its webinar “Factual Inquiry and Patent Eligibility: Analysis and Strategy After Recent Decisions” on 12 April 2018. For speaker list and registration go here.

The American Bar Association will be streaming a webinar in its Landslide Webinar Series – “Blockchain Basics: A Practitioner's Guide to Intellectual Property Issues of Distributed Ledger Technology”. It will offer an overview of the foundational intellectual property issues of blockchain technologies. Discussion will include an explanation of blockchain technologies, how they operate, and what potential uses they have; particularly in the IP space. Panelists will then further examine how blockchain participants may create protectable IP rights in their blockchain investments and explore intellectual property risks associated with using blockchain technologies and offer strategies to mitigate those risks. Save the date: 17 April 2018. Registration: here.

Image credits: Raccoon Photo