On Friday, November 14, I’ll be in Cleveland to speak at CSU|LAW’s annual IP+ Conference (with a simultaneous livestream). I’m excited about the line up with Professors Donald Chisum and Janice Mueller as a keynote duet, followed by a fireside chat with retired Federal Circuit Judges Kathleen O’Malley and Richard Linn. I’ll join them for an afternoon “State of IP” panel that will dig into the ongoing generational shift in our patent and copyright systems. It’s a huge honor to share a stage with scholars and jurists whose work shapes so much of what we teach and practice. In my patent law course I assign Janice Mueller’s hornbook; in class we work through opinions authored by Judges O’Malley and Linn; and like nearly everyone in our field, I regularly lean on Chisum on Patents as the treatise of record.
The event is organized by CSU Law Professor Christa Laser, the school’s IP Program Director. Many thanks to Prof. Laser for putting this program together. Registration is free for students and cheap ($25) for attendees seeking CLE. In-person and virtual options are available.
My superficial take on items for talking about “the ongoing generational shift in our patent and copyright systems” would be, for patents, Chinese patents exceeding all U.S., Japanese and European patents, and the huge percentage of U.S. patents now being software [including AI] and internet related versus consumer products and other hardware, chemicals, pharma, manufacturing, etc. And for copyright shift, digital electronic transmission and remote cloud storage of most copyrightable material. I.e., the death of paper and other tangible recording media.
I’m curious what experts think are bigger changes?