Thursday, October 20, 2016

The University of New Hampshire School of Law’s Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property hosted its Sixth Annual Intellectual Property Scholars’ Roundtable on Oct. 7 and 8, 2016, welcoming law professors from institutions throughout the country to discuss research and scholarship in intellectual property. The event is an annual highlight for the Franklin Pierce Center, as the intimate size and casual format encourage collaboration through the sharing of creative ideas and viewpoints.

The first day began with opening remarks from Ann Bartow, Director of the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property, as well as Margaret McCabe, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at UNH Law. Opening day presentations included: Jake Linford of Florida State University College of Law, who presented “Scarcity of Attention in a World Without Copyright;” Rachel E. Sachs of Washington University School of Law, who presented “The Unpatentable Microbiome;” Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons, who presented “Boldly Not Going Where We Have Gone Before: The Principles of the Law of  Software Contracts;” W. Nicholson Price II of University of Michigan Law School, who presented “Competing Incentives in Early Biomedical Innovation;” Ari Ezra Waldman of New York Law School, who presented “Trickle Up/Down Privacy;” Sarah Wasserman Rajec of William and Mary Law School, who presented “In Rem in IP;” and Alexandra Roberts of UNH Law, who presented “Failure to Function, Or What We Talk About When We Talk About “Use as a Mark.”

The second day was led off by Joseph Scott Miller of University of Georgia Law School, who presented “Reasonably Certain Claim Scope After Teva, Nautilus, and Festo.” Miller was followed by: Ryan Gabriel Vacca of University of Akron School of Law, who presented “Percolating Intellectual Property Law through Circuit Stewardship: Empirical and Jurisprudential Analysis of En Banc Review;” Tonya M. Evans of Widener University School of Law, who presented “User ‘Safer Harbor’ from Statutory Damages: Remixing the DOC’s IP Task Force White Paper;” Jeremy Bock of the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis, who presented “Behavioral Claim Construction;” and Roger Allan Ford of UNH Law, who presented “The Uneasy Case for Patent Federalism.” Yvette Joy Liebesman of St. Louis University School of Law was a featured commentator at the event.

After the Roundtable ended, a number of participants were able to enjoy the setting of New Hampshire in autumn, as both the weather and foliage display were excellent.