December 17, 2012
To Fellow Members of the AIPPI-US Division of AIPLA:
In this holiday season, it is my pleasure to provide this update on some activities and news from AIPPI. The Resolutions passed by the recent AIPPI World Congress in Seoul have now been distributed to the National Groups, and we have been asked to transmit them to our relevant government agencies in the near future. We intend to submit these resolutions to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and other government agencies that may have an interest in the issues covered. Click here to view the final resolutions.
AIPPI has also asked for our suggestions for proposed Workshop Topics for the Forum and Exco Meeting scheduled for September 5-11, 2013 in Helsinki, Finland. We need to send in our suggestions soon, although we have obtained an extension of their originally requested date until December 31. I am sure AIPPI will be happy to have our suggestions in any case.
In addition to suggested workshop topics for Helsinki, AIPPI has asked us to submit our ideas for Working Questions to be considered at the next AIPPI World Congress to be held in Toronto, Canada from September 14-18, 2014. This is a great opportunity for us to have AIPPI focus on issues we consider to be important, and I encourage you to think about what questions we could propose for study that would help resolve issues you have experienced in your practice, or that would enhance efforts toward harmonization of substantive and procedural patent law, trademark law, copyright law or other intellectual property related laws.
Please send me your ideas for workshop topics and working questions as soon as possible so that we can submit them to AIPPI on a timely basis.
Following our successful Annual Meeting on October 26, 2012, your AIPPI-US Steering Committee has held one monthly telephone conference meeting. Discussions at that meeting included a review of the Annual Meeting, a discussion of the Seoul Congress, and an update on the planned AIPLA/FICPI/AIPPI Colloquium on "Protection of Confidentiality in IP Advice (PCIPA) - National and International Remedies" which is to be held in Paris on June 26-28, 2013. The Steering Committee also had preliminary discussions on the working questions for the Helsinki Forum and Exco Meeting. Those questions are as follows:
- Q233 Grace period for patents
- Q234 Relevant public for determining the degree of recognition of famous marks, well-known marks and marks with a reputation
- Q235 Term of copyright protection
- Q236 Relief in IP proceedings other than injunctions or damages
We have already had a number of members volunteer to work on several of these questions, especially the question on Grace Period. If you have an interest in helping to draft the AIPPI-US report on any of these questions, please let me know and we will add you to that team. Actual work on drafting the reports will begin as soon as we receive the working guidelines from AIPPI early in 2013. Click here for more detail on the Working Questions 233-236.
The Steering Committee also discussed a plan to have a program during the AIPLA Spring Meeting in Seattle to showcase AIPPI-US and to discuss the positions of AIPPI-US on each of the Helsinki Working Questions. By that time, we expect to have drafts of all the AIPPI-US Working Question reports, and it should be an appropriate time to review the reports and receive any additional comments and suggestions. In addition, the AIPPI Bureau is preliminarily planning to have its own meeting in Seattle during the week of the AIPLA Spring Meeting. As a result, we hope to have the AIPPI Bureau personnel attend and participate in our program and provide an overview of AIPPI and its activities.
The Steering Committee also agreed to hold a business meeting in Tampa during the AIPLA Mid-Winter Institute, if possible. The format for the Tampa meeting provides time for business meetings on Thursday, January 31, 2013 and Friday, February 1, 2013 between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM. We will work to schedule our meeting in one of these time slots. We have also been asked by AIPPI Canada to allow them a few minutes during our business meeting in Tampa for them to discuss their plans for the Toronto Congress in 2014. We have accepted their offer and will include them in the agenda for that meeting.
During the AIPPI World Congress in Seoul, the AIPPI-US delegation leadership and our Asia Pacific Committee leaders had a chance to meet separately with the AIPPI Groups from China, Japan, and Korea. During these meetings, we discussed the changes in the structure of AIPPI-US and how we could cooperate more effectively with each of these national groups. In addition, we preliminarily discussed the possibility of a delegation from AIPPI-US visiting each of these groups sometime in late 2013. Each of these national groups was enthusiastic about the possibility of receiving such a delegation, and discussions are continuing on when and how we can schedule such a trip. If you are interested in helping with this effort or joining the potential trip, please inform John Carson, the Chair of our Asia Pacific Committee (APC), John.Carson@knobbe.com.
I take this opportunity to inform you about two other scheduled AIPPI national group events. The 8th bi-annual AIPPI International Baltic Conference on Intellectual Property is scheduled for April 11-13, 2013 in Vilnius Lithuania. More information is available at http://www.vilniusconference.lt/. In addition, the Israeli National Group of AIPPI, in collaboration with the Faculty of Law at the Tel-Aviv University, is planning an international conference on Intellectual Property, to be held in Tel-Aviv, Israel between November 10 and 11, 2013.
This has been an important year for AIPPI-US, with the extraordinary work to complete the arrangement with AIPLA, and we look forward to an even greater year in 2013 as we move forward to increase our membership and its activities. I extend my best wishes to everyone for a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year.
David W. Hill
Chair, AIPPI-US Division |