Report of the Delegation of the intellectual Property Law Section of the State Bar of California to Washington, D.C. April 20-22, 2015

From left to right, DC delegation member Christopher R. Lockard, Section Chair Sophie Cohen, Delegation Chair Elizabeth J. Rest, delegation members Anne-Marie D. Dao, Thomas Hassing, and Derrick L. Brent at National IPR Coordination Center, Arlington, Virginia.

For over a decade, each year the Executive Committee of the intellectual Property Law Section of the State Bar of California (IP Section) has sent a delegation to Washington, D.C. to visit officials and other persons in the federal government of importance to intellectual property law. The delegation does not lobby or take positions on any issues. The purpose of the delegation is to establish and maintain contacts that will assist the Section in carrying out its educational mission, and to gather information and encourage the dissemination of information on an ongoing basis that will enable the Section to carry out its functions and inform its members. Continuing this practice, the Section sent a delegation in April 2015 that met with selected legislators, and officers and staff of the federal government involved in intellectual property in Washington, D.C. and Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia.

The 2015 delegation consisted of the following representatives from the IP Section Executive Committee:

• Sophie Cohen, Chair of the Executive Committee of the IP Section;
• Elizabeth J. Rest, Secretary of the Executive Committee of the IP Section, Chair of the delegation;
• Derrick Brent, Vice-Chair of the IP Section’s In-House Counsel interest Group;
• Anne-Marie Dao, Member of the Executive Committee of the IP Section, Publications Chair, Litigation interest Group;
• Thomas Hassing, Member of the Executive Committee of the IP Section; and
• Christopher R. Lockard, Member of the Executive Committee of the IP Section, Chair, Copyright interest Group.