As you know, on July 6, 2006, the Florida Supreme Court approved the Proposed Standards for Board Certification in Intellectual Property Law. Hank Coxe, President of The Florida Bar, will appoint the inaugural 9-member Certification Committee. The new Certification Committee will work with the Board of Legal Specialization and Education. The work required in the first year particularly will be time consuming as the Certification Committee’s responsibilities will include: review of applicant credentials, preparation and grading of the examination and submission of final recommendations to certify those qualified to comprise the first class of board certified lawyers in IP law. The persons named to the inaugural Certification Committee will be certified, along with the first class, by virtue of serving on the Certification Committee. Each person named to the Certification Committee must be recognized as someone who would otherwise qualify and be considered by his or her peers as a legal expert in the field of IP law.
The Rules Regulating The Florida Bar require the initial appointees to the Certification Committee to be “eminent attorneys in the practice field, members in good standing and admitted to The Florida Bar no less than 10 years.” The court approved standards also require that the Certification Committee membership include: a minimum of 3 registered patent attorneys with experience in patent application prosecution, 2 members with experience in patent infringement litigation, 2 members with experience in trademark law, and 2 members with experience in copyright law.
The IP Committee has been asked to recommend persons to serve on the Certification Committee and has been asked to consider achieving diversity and geographical balance in our recommendations.
If you are interested in being considered for recommendation by the IP Committee, please review the requirements set forth in the Proposed Standards which may be found on the IP Committee page of the Business Law Section website at www.flabuslaw.org (see IP Certification Approved). Then, forward to me your request for consideration (and indicate the category in which your practice falls, for example, patent infringement litigation) no later than 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 17, 2006. Once a list of recommendations is determined, we will provide this information to the IP Committee.
The August 1st and August 15th editions of the Florida Bar News contain announcements regarding the approval of the IP Certification Standards. The articles also indicate that persons interested in serving on the Certification Committee should submit such a request directly to Hank Coxe no later than August 31, 2006. Please note that the purpose of this email is to determine interest among our IP Committee members so that the IP Committee may make recommendations on that basis; however, interested persons should submit a request to serve on the Certification Committee directly to Hank Coxe.
Thank you. Jeanne
Jeanne L. Seewald, Chair
Intellectual Property Law Committee of
The Business Law Section of
The Florida Bar
