AGENDA: Thursday October 15th, 2015

Copyright or trademark infringers need to know that you will litigate and go to trial. Yet, litigating can be risky and expensive, so understanding your strategic options and their implications is essential.

This panel will explore:

• Deciding on your end game first
• When does it make sense to litigate
• Considering alternative venues:
  • ITC
  • UDRP
• Your litigation preparation plan
• Developing a strong story for trial
• Post settlement & trial strategy

Social media can be a double-edged sword for brands: Increased brand exposure and customer engagement can also backfire and turn into a PR disaster -- live on Twitter. IP counsels working to protect the company brand and content need to strike the right balance.

This panel will explore:

• Weighing brand strategy & business goals against the need for protection and enforcement
• Strategies for monitoring Social Media
• Copyright - the right of control:
  • Internal: owned by the brand
  • External: customer or peer authorship
• Trademark - brands, logos & tag lines

Whether it’s building a gTLD strategy, protecting your brand online, striking the right balance in social media, or deciding on the best global infringement policy for your company, this panel tackles today’s decisive issues in trademark law.

This panel will explore:

• The current landscape & trends
• An overview of recent case law
  • B&B Hardware and Hana Financial
• Search keywords & trademark strategies
• Trademark “Trolls”
• International updates

Bull or Bully: His Airness and IP Rights and Wrongs.  

Michael Jordan’s recent slam dunk in his case against Dominick’s highlights how content that seems benign can result in liability and significant economic loss.  Where does public sympathy lie?  The session will explore the difficulty of avoiding conflict in a culture where technology requires creative and instantaneous messaging and the line between personal communication and advertising has all but disappeared.  In this context, landing on the side of diligent brand protection rather than trademark bullying can mean the difference between dignified success and a public relations disaster.

Enforcing your trademarks in today’s environment is complex and/or market share can be lost when customers cannot distinguish a company’s mark from those of the competition, so a balanced enforcement strategy is essential.

This panel will explore:

• Which marks merit policing?
• Methodology of analysis
• How to prioritize enforcement
• What actions to take

Hear From Jason Beckerman of TMZ and how the recent landscape and trends are impacting his trademark & copyright strategies. 

• How are they prtoecting and policing their brand
• what are they doing to protect their content
• What are the biggest trademark chalenges they have
• What are the biggest copyright obstacles