AIPLA Chemical Practice Committee Report and Workplan

DATE: October 7, 20132013 AIPLA Annual Meeting

COMMITTEE LEADERSHIP:Jeffrey N. Townes, Chair

Carol M. Nielsen, Vice – Chair

William B. Kezer, Immediate Past Chair

OUR MISSION:

The business of chemistry is essential to our everyday lives and is worldwide in scope. Advances in chemistry spur new products that benefit our health, productivity, and safety and chemical innovations drive economic growth. As such, our mission is to serve our members whose work provokes and hastens ground-breaking discoveries in chemistry and launches them into emerging technologies. We strive to help our members achieve their business goals through education, mentoring and providing variety of resources. We seek to assist our policy leaders in maintaining an intellectual property system that stimulates and rewards innovation, and works in harmony, on a global level, with other economic systems. We strive to serve the public by promoting healthy competition and basic fairness in all we do.

PROGRAMS:

  • 2013 Annual Meeting (2 Hours CLE)

Markus Meier, the Federal Trade Commission’s Assistant Director of the Health Care Division in the Bureau of Competition will address FTC priorities for IP and pharmaceuticals. Supreme Court decision in FTC v. Actavis, which set forth the “rule of reason” antitrust standard for settlements of generic drug patent infringement litigations that include “reverse payments”, will be the focus of subsequent discussion. Also, views from an in-house pharmaceutical company attorney and a plaintiff’s class action attorney will address the implications of Actavis decision on dispute resolution.

  • 2014 Mid-Winter

Plans are underway with the various subcommittees to present a theme-based display with associated opportunities in education, global outreach, advocacy and member services.

Plans for coordination between stated meetings:

  • The Newsletter

The Newsletter is a means to connect with our members between meetings. Its contents will include subcommittee reports and details of upcoming programs. Members will be able to submit articles and bring up issues that may be of interest to the Chemical Practice Committee. This resource will also serve as an outlet for members to discuss hot topics and suggest policy changes at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

  • The Chemical Practice Road Show

Plans are on the way to hold The Chemical Practice Road Show in the summer of 2015, which will take place every other year in two or more cities each time. This will provide an opportunity for a panel made up of judges and both in-house and firm attorneys to provide perspectives on the current state of the practice in the chemical arts.

  • Conferences and Webinars

Committee meetings and webinarswill continue to take place between existing leadership and interested committee members. We plan to offer 2 to 3 webinars a year and hold a committee meeting at Spring and Annual Meeting where a large portion of the meeting is dedicated to the education of our membership and/or information gathering and debate of the latest policy issues.

OUR STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES:

ADVOCACY:

Many of our subcommittee are focused on advocacy. For instance, the mission of the Post-Grant Proceedings Subcommittee will be to monitor trial proceedings at the PTAB pertaining to and impacting chemical and chemical engineering technology. The leadership of the subcommittee will provide members with periodic reports and will play a role in advocacy considerations, when pertinent.

PUBLIC EDUCATION:

Our committee will investigate involvement with other organizations like ACS to improve the public perception of IP. We will coordinate this effort with other committees, especially the public education committee.

MEMBER SERVICES:

A quarterly published newsletter prepared by the Newsletter Subcommittee will include three to five case law reports focused on chemical, pharmaceutical, polymer and natural product fields. Members will be able to submit their own perspectives and interesting articles and opinions regarding related issues.

Many of other subcommittees will focus on member services, as well. For instance, the Pharmaceutical Subcommittee will focus its efforts on disseminating current information as it relates to industry trends, important case law, and statutory and regulatory developments in the wake of the changing landscape of the pharmaceutical patent laws. The Litigation/ITC Subcommittee will prepare a review of chemical ITC cases and district court cases focused on issues affecting chemical practice and will generate articles on chemistry litigation, appeals and all related issues. The Corporate Subcommittee will focus its efforts on monitoring and reporting on domestic and international legislative affairs as they relate to the corporate chemical practices. Continuing education and IP and chemical mentorship in the corporate environment will be provided to the members while local grassroots programs will provide a foundation to connect for corporate chemical practitioners.

Finally, webinars will be organized by both, the Webinar Subcommittee and other subcommittees interested in addressing legal issues that arise in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

GLOBAL OUTREACH:

The main focus of the International Subcommittee will be to provide a forum for discussion of chemical practice issues around the world. In particular, the activities will be directed to identifying divergent practices between different jurisdictions and international ‘best practice’. The topical content will be provided on semi-annual basis in the form of a newsletter and webinars which will be held on ‘as needed’ basis.

SUBCOMMITTEES:

Since the AIPLA Spring 2013 Meeting in Seattle, Washington, committee leaders Bill Kezer and Jeff Townes worked to establish a new subcommittee structure with leaders who now are actively seeking members to team up and join in their efforts to make this committee a resource and advocate for its members while providing a diverse business network.

The following subcommittees have been created (and chairs or co-chairs appointed):

Newsletter Subcommittee

Roy P. Issac, Ph.D., J.D. ()

Debora Plehn-Dujowich, Ph.D., J.D. ()

Webinar Subcommittee

Kim Choate ()

MicroSite Enhancement Subcommittee

John Marquardt ()

Professional Programs Subcommittee

Drew Patty ()

Pharmaceutical Subcommittee

Gerard Reinhardt ()

Paul Sudentas ()

Litigation/ITC Subcommittee

Jeffrey W. Abraham ()

Maximilienne Bishop, Ph.D., J.D. ()

Post-Grant Proceedings Subcommittee

Herb Hart ()

Corporate Practice Subcommittee

Michele M. Tyrpak ()

Sara Hinkley ()

International Subcommittee

Julie Carlisle, Ph.D. ()

Tatiana Almeida Silveira ()

Bill Kezer ()