AGENDA: Wednesday, October 4th

Quality patents are the only way forward in your filings and portfolio in today's post AIA landscape. To overcome legal and business challenges, companies must be more thorough in core elements like portfolio management, patent prosecution and resource allocation. Meeting these fundamental shifts means counsel must go beyond the standard clearance efforts and engage stakeholders at all levels of the organization to achieve a fully aligned patent strategy.

 This panel will explore:

• Portfolio management and alignment to core organization goals
• Developing a more sophisticated patent prosecution strategy
• Portfolio evaluations: Due diligence, market competitiveness and internal analysis
• People, process and resource coordination

As uncertainty at the PTAB and the threat of invalidity complicate patenting, Trade secrets are becoming a new strategic option for IP leaders. At its core, a successful trade secret strategy relies on two equally important factors: people and process.

 This panel will explore:

• The business choice between trade secrets and patents
• Developing and maintaining a trade secrets process
  • Key elements in program development
• Implementation and the human factors: 
  • Education
  • Engagement
  • Reinforcement
  • Procedures
• Proactive and preventative measures
• Responses to a breach

Running a successful IPR demands greater sophistication from all stakeholders. Patent owners are adapting to the tougher enforcement landscape and petitioners still have great odds of being successful. Judges have also adapted and seem to have evolved their thinking and process. As both petitioners and patent owners gain more experience and in-house and outside counsel gain more sophistication - this is a great opportunity to benchmark the evolution of Post Issuance Proceedings (PIP).

This panel will explore:

• Where is PIP heading next? What does the environment look like?
• Hazards to avoid, and best practices in regards to PIP
• How can you transform your litigation strategy?
• Future trends and crucial lessons learned

An aligned patent prosecution strategy is important because the consequences of inconsistent or contradictory patent prosecution strategies can be devastating. If not properly prepared, patents risk being invalidated costing an organization time, capital, resources and most importantly market share. How can you craft patents that are both strong and aligned to business goals? What pitfalls should you avoid? What role does outside counsel play in alignment and effective patent prosecution?

This panel will explore:

• Forward-thinking: Prosecution to survive future litigation
• Aligning business and legal for better strategic outcomes
• Scope, geography & industry: What else should you be considering?
• Lessons learned and obstacle avoidance

The program will review the impact of inter partes review under the AIA on patent litigation and NPE activity to contextualize the discussion of the Oil States Energy Services LLC case, which will be heard by the Supreme Court in the upcoming term. 

• The question presented by the Oil States’ petition—whether inter partes review “violates the Constitution by extinguishing private property rights through a non-Article III forum without a jury”— will be analyzed.
• The potential impact of the decision on prior precedent will also be explored.
• What the patent litigation landscape in 2018 could look like without inter partes review will conclude the program.

For a long time the landscape has been favorable to the defendant, but recent decisions are pointing towards the patent owner. Are the winds shifting and are you leveraging your defensive strategy beyond IPRs? If patent owners do bring a case now, it will be a strong one; so the ability to be prepared with your defensive strategy is key. Preparing your resources, team and portfolio means you will be less reactive.

This panel will explore:

• Preparing your defense and aligning with organizational resources
• Scenario planning: What to do when approached?
• Anticipating enforcement strategies
• Considering the consequences: Going beyond just the financials

This session outlines various ethical issues in intellectual property:

• Ethics in leadership and business
• Ethical frameworks
• Ethics related examples/circumstances that occur in an intellectual property heavy environment; including but not limited to internal ethics processes, regulations and legal mandates