Featuring Remarks by Congressman Darrell Issa and USPTO’s Michelle Lee

Patent reform is high on the agenda for the upcoming Congress. Proponents of reform claim the current system produces excessive litigation, particularly on the part of “patent assertion entities,” imposing costs on entrepreneurs and others and deterring innovation. Those on the other side suggest that the litigation explosion is overstated and that patent reform efforts will weaken intellectual property protections to the detriment of innovation. Complicating this issue is that the effects of the America Invents Act, recent court decisions, as well as changes at USPTO are still unfolding.

The Technology Policy Institute is hosting a half-day conference “Patents in Theory and Practice: Implications for Reform” on February 11th to explore the evidence for reform from both sides of the issues.

“Patents in Theory and Practice: Implications for Reform” will be held Wednesday, February 11, 2015 from 8:30am to 1:00pm at the National Press club, located at 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, in Washington, DC. Lunch will be served. Registration can be performed on the TPI website. Questions should be directed to Ashley Benjamin at [email protected]. Members of the press should contact Amy Smorodin at [email protected].

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA)
Michelle Lee, Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO
Richard Abramson, Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs and General Counsel, SRI International
Ron Katznelson, President, Bi-Level Technologies
Jay Kesan, Professor and Director, Program in Intellectual Property and Technology Law and H. Ross & Helen Workman Research Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Diane Lettelleir, Senior Managing Counsel, Litigation, JCPenney
Timothy Simcoe, Senior Economist, President’s Council of Economic Advisers and Associate Professor of Strategy & Innovation, Boston University School of Management (on leave)
Daniel Spulber, Elinor Hobbs Distinguished Professor of International Business and Professor of Management Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, and Professor of Law at the Northwestern University Law School
Catherine Tucker, Mark Hyman Jr. Career Development Professor and Associate Professor of Management Science, MIT Sloan School of Management
Daniel Zadoff, Managing Partner, Nutritionix