Letter from the Chair

Keepers of the Calendar (and the Case Law),

The Section extends you a warm welcome to 2026, and hopes that this quarter is already proving fruitful and joyous for each of you.

In a world of ambitious and/or foolish resolutions discarded, remember that your membership in this group can, indeed, assist you with two truly worthwhile promises to yourself: meet new people and learn new things. To that end, in addition to our stalwart monthly calls, this year four of our Interest Groups will begin corralling great minds to discuss edgy issues: the Trademark IG will coalesce the first Thursday of the month (every other month) from 2 to 3 pm; the Entertainment and Sports IG will dazzle you the second Tuesday of the month at noon; the In-House IG will shed wisdom on the third Wednesday of every month from 1-1:30 pm, and the International IG will liven minds on the first monthly Thursdays at 12 pm.

To capitalize on an opportunity to express your two (or fifty) cents’ worth about Section matters, plans, goals, and methods—be sure to submit your Executive Committee Application by March 31^st (and do reach out if you have questions about the position).

For those of you who may be soon held to account for continuing your legal education (as well as those who anxiously and with a terrifying degree of thoroughness attempt to collect all your credits in the first few weeks in which you are able to do so), please observe that until March 31, 2026 you will have access to some excellent bundles webinar sets for a steal: The Trademark Spotlight Conference  our EPO Month Webinar Series, and the 48^th IP Institute bundle.

And of course, our flagship program, the 49^th annual IP Institute is just around the corner.  It will take place from March 20-21, 2026 at the effortlessly cool Clift Royal Sonesta (home to the iconic Redwood Room) in beautiful San Francisco. Directly following our welcome reception the Thursday evening before the conference begins, the Section’s newest Interest Group (the Artificial Intelligence IG) will host cocktails at 620 Jones. The programming (which will cover  myriad current IP issues discussed and digested by impressive academics, private practitioners, and judges) will begin on Friday morning and continue through Saturday afternoon. In between these terrific panels, you will have a chance to speak to officers of our interest groups to learn what they do and discuss topics of interest as well as to chat with colleagues you may not have seen for some time or acquire new business contacts at our networking lunches. In addition, you will get a shot at snapping some lovely photos of the City while you compete in a scavenger hunt, and spinning the wheel at our Casino Night.

See you at the Institute—if nothing else, it’s a great excuse to hang out with this lovely group of lexical wizards!

Resolutely Yours,

L