AIPLA Chemical Practice Committee
October 2011 Report
AIPLA CHEMICAL PRACTICE COMMITTEE
REPORT, 2011 ANNUAL MEETING
William B. Kezer, Ph.D., Chair
Kilpatrick Townsend
Walnut Creek, CA
Jeffrey N. Townes, Vice-Chair
LeClair Ryan
Alexandria, VA
Philip S. Johnson, Liaison to the Board of Directors
Chief Patent Counsel, Johnson & Johnson
Washington, D.C
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The Chemical Practice Committee continues to provide information on current developments in IP law, recent litigation, and latest technologies. Programs in 2011 have examined areas unique to chemical patent practice, and explored technical and legal issues from a chemical practitioner’s perspective. Similar programs are designed for this meeting, later this year, and into 2012.
VISION, MISSION, and VALUES
We are committed to providing a meaningful vision, focused mission, and strong values to the Chemical Patent Practice Committee. We will continue to present programs of interest to attract a broad range of practitioners. These provide educational opportunities, give individuals an opportunity to present topical content, attract new members, and provide a more collegial and intimate environment in which individuals can network.
We will continue to explore new growth areas within Chemical practice, and strive to address the needs of practitioners in those areas. Further, to reach committee members who cannot come to the meetings, we will continue to place any Judicial and Administrative Decisions Reports, other subcommittee reports, and select presentations given at the meetings on the Committee's Web Page.
We will also continue to correspond on a periodic basis with all committee members available via e-mail to distribute materials of interest, provide information about upcoming activities, and promote more active involvement. While we have traditionally supplemented our e-mail communications with mailed materials, we now concentrate our efforts on electronic communication.
ADVOCACY
We will continue to respond to members’ concerns regarding legislative, PTO and judicial issues, through our Response Task Force and Legislative subcommittee. Lawrence Kass (Millbank Tweed) serves as liaison to the Amicus Committee. His responsibilities will include ongoing review of judicial decisions of concern to chemical practitioners and coordination with the Amicus committee for possible participation.
PUBLIC EDUCATION
This is a key area where the AIPLA has traditionally provided great services. Under the leadership of Mike Dzwonczyk, immediate past chair of the Chemical Patent Practice, the Road Show was started again in 2011. It was a great success. Another Road Show is planned for the summer of 2013.
This year at the annual meeting, we are joining with IP Practice of Europe to give a presentation on written description, enablement, and the law of sufficiency/description globally. In particular, the focus will be on the differences among the U.S., Europe, and Canada. This continues programs we have put together analyzing the similarities and differences in chemical patent law in various regions around the world. Last year’s spring committee meeting focused on various countries in the Far East, including Japan, Taiwan and China, and Singapore, and last year’s mid-winter committee meeting focused on various aspects of European law, all as they particularly relate to chemical patent practitioners.
We have also had success with webinars. William Childs is scheduled to give a webinar later this year on solid-state forms of chemistry, and we expect other webinars will follow. One topic in particular we think will gain a lot of attention is the America Invents Act. We are hopeful to find willing participants during this year’s committee meeting for putting together a webinar on the new patent laws, particularly as they relate to chemical patent attorneys.
MEMBER SERVICES
In an effort to assist the staff in achieving the AIPLA's goals, the Chemical Practice Committee will endeavor to rehabilitate its webpage. Postings and the delivery of relevant content has declined and our objective is to restore the vitality and usefulness of the webpage. Our efforts continue.
GLOBAL OUTREACH
It is important that we continue to grow, not only attracting new members from existing strongholds, but tapping into new groups that may have otherwise been reluctant to participate in AIPLA meetings. We believe that having a diverse membership and diverse speakers provides a better program for all parties. One of our goals is to attract new members, particularly from the corporate and government sectors – though continuing to reach out to both outside counsel and foreign counsel. We are open to creative ideas to bring in new members, especially from those serving as in-house corporate counsel, a group that we would like to see represented in larger numbers at future AIPLA events.
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