By: Robert R. Sachs
It's been a busy year for Section 101, with the Myriad, CLS, Ultramercial and Guidewire decisions, along with the end-of-summer certiorari petitions of Alice Corp. and WildTangent to the Supreme Court to resolve the apparent “deadlock” in the Federal Circuit. No “may” about it: We in fact live in interesting times.
Thus, it's the perfect setting for Fenwick & West's fifth annual Lecture Series in Technology, Entrepreneurship, Science and Law, held in conjunction with UC Davis School of Law. The event, “On the Frontier of the Future: Innovation and the Evolution of Patentable Subject Matter,” will be held on Friday, September 27, 2013, 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., at UC Davis School of Law. We will be taking an in depth look at these legal developments, along with their practical and strategic impacts. Keynote speakers include David Kappos (Former Director of the USPTO) and Chief Judge Randall Rader of the Federal Circuit. We will have two panels, one focusing on biotechnology and one focusing on software and business methods.
I will be moderating the software/business methods panel, which will include Michelle Lee (Director USPTO Silicon Valley), Mark Lemley (Stanford), Pam Samuelson (Berkeley), Earl Rennison (Trovix) and Steve Vassallo (Foundation Capital). The biotech panel will be moderated by Peter Lee (UC Davis School of Law) and will include my partner Andrew Serafini, Kevin Collins (Washington Univ. School of Law), Rebecca Eisenberg (Univ. of Michigan School of Law) and Mat Gordon (Myriad).
Without a doubt this will be an engaging and insightful discussion of many of the legal, business and technological issues involved in the fundamental patent law question of our time: What are the boundaries of patent-eligible subject matter?
Hope to see you there.
*The perspectives expressed in the Bilski Blog, as well as in various sources cited therein from time to time, are those of the respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Fenwick & West LLP or its clients.