Next IP Committee Meeting will be Sept. 1 at Naples Retreat

The next meeting of the IP Committee will take place at the Business Law Section retreat in Naples on Saturday, September 1 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Click here for the complete retreat schedule.

Our meeting will include a 55 minute CLE presentation by Carly Johnson and Daniel Benavides on Hot Intellectual Property Issues in Bankruptcy. We will have just over one hour for the business portion of the meeting.  Our agenda will include the IP Symposium, the Trademark Taskforce’s outreach to the Florida Department of State, and a report from the joint IP/Computer Law subcommittee on the proposed revisions to 542.355. If there are any other important items that members feel should be added to the agenda, please contact the Committee Chair, Leora Herrmann, at [email protected].  Click here to download the minutes from the IP Committee’s June 21, 2012 meeting.

Teaching Opportunity at Ava Maria School of Law

IP Committee member Jeanne Seewald reports that the Ava Maria School of Law is looking for a practitioner to teach a course on Copyright Law this fall.  If you are interested, you can contact Patrick Quirk ([email protected]), Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.  The course description states that “[t]his course will provide an in-depth examination of the law governing copyright protection as codified and practiced in the United States under the 1976 Copyright Revision Act. This course will further examine the nature of protected rights including an author’s moral rights, ownership, duration, enforcement, and scope of exclusive rights with a particular focus on the fair use doctrine. The controversies surrounding application of copyright law to new technologies, including computer software and the Internet, is a theme that runs throughout the course.” Classes begin on August 13, 2012 and end on November 21st. Exams will finish on December 11.

Agenda for June 21, 2012 IP Committee Meeting

The IP Committee will meet from 9:00 – 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 21, 2012 during The Florida Bar Annual Convention. The agenda for the meeting includes a CLE presentation by Jerold Schneider of Arnstein & Lehr in West Palm Beach titled IP at the International Trade Commission.  We will also discuss proposed revisions to the Floria noncompete statute, 542.335, Fla. Stat., which have been proposed by the Business Law Section’s Antitrust Committee.  If you would like a copy of the proposed revisions, send an email to Leora Herrmann at [email protected]Click here for the minutes of the March 1, 2012 IP Committee meeting.

IP Committee to Vote Sept. 3 on Proposal to Raise Substantial Involvement Requirement for IP Certification to 50%

As agreed at the April 14, 2011 meeting of the IP Committee, we have placed the proposal to increase the “substantial involvement” requirement for IP Certification to fifty percent on the agenda for discussion and a vote at the Committee’s September 3rd meeting in Naples.  Before we vote, we will hear from past IP Certification Committee Chair Michael Chesal who will explain the rationale for the proposal and from former IP Certification Committee member Steph Nagin who will address the issues that have been raised by opponents of the proposal.  There will be time for discussion after Michael’ and Steph’s presentations.