Letter from the Chair

SOPHIE COHEN Cobalt LLP

Dear fellow Section members,

It’s going to be another exciting year in IP! 2015 started off with a bang, with the U.S. Supreme Court having already issued two significant intellectual property rulings in January. In Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., the Court changed the standard of appellate review for patent claim construction, holding that the appellate court must apply a "clear error" (not de novo) standard of review and give deference to the trial judge’s factual findings, which is discussed in more detail in Glenn Von Tersch’s column on the Federal Circuit in this issue. In Hana Financial, Inc. v. Hana Bank, the Court ruled that the "trademark tacking" issue (the question of whether a prior version of a trademark may be "tacked" on to a later version of the mark for purposes of determining priority) is a factual question for a jury to decide, which is discussed in more detail in Douglas Masters’ article on page 5 and Anne-Marie Dao’s column on the Ninth Circuit in this issue. On the policy Iront, we expect the 114th Congress will continue to consider copyright reform, Copyright Office modernization, patent litigation reform, and trade secret legislation.

Our Section keeps up with these developments and works hard to provide you with practical, advanced, and innovative educational offerings. Our Interest Groups and program chairs like to think outside the box. A perfect example is the brand new Adults Only IP conference, which was held in Los Angeles at the end of February. This unique event covered topics not usually (or ever!) addressed in a professional CLE setting, including IP law for cannabis businesses, strategies for protecting adult entertainment content, IP and the First Amendment, challenges posed by scandalous marks, and the ethical considerations of representing controversial clients.