Past Conferences
Center for Transnational Law and Business (CTLB)

February 22 Symposium: Reforming Patent Reform

WITH FEATURED KEYNOTE SPEAKER: USPTO DIRECTOR ANDREI IANCU

Friday, February 22, 2019
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

Reform of the U.S. patent system has been in full swing for at least a decade, resulting in major legislative, judicial and regulatory developments. This conference will provide a venue for thought leaders in the academic, legal and policymaking communities to engage in an economically informed discussion of whether the patent reform process has taken steps that advance or hinder our innovation economy.

The Conference will consist of a morning and afternoon session, with a lunch featuring a keynote address by Andrei Iancu, Director of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The morning sessions will focus on empirical and other economic analysis relating to policy concerns surrounding non-practicing entities, patent holdup and patent quality. The afternoon sessions will leverage that analysis in discussing past and future reforms in patent and antitrust law to address these issues.

USC Gould School of Law, a State Bar of California-approved MCLE provider, certifies that this activity qualifies for minimum continuing legal education credit in the amount of 5.25 hours.

Program - Friday, February 22

8 a.m.	Breakfast
8:50 a.m.	Opening remarks
9 a.m.	Session I: Patent Trolls or Non-Practicing Entities? Michael Meurer (Boston University) David Schwartz (Northwestern University)
10 a.m.	Session 2: Does Patent Holdup Exist? Jorge Contreras (University of Utah) Stephen Haber (Stanford University; Hoover Institution)
11 a.m.	Break
11:15 a.m.	Session 3: Can We Measure Patent Quality and Examiner Performance? Deepak Hegde (New York University) Saurabh Vishnubhakat (Texas A&M University)
12:15 p.m.	Lunch: USPTO Director Andrei Iancu
1:45 p.m.	Session 4: Is SEP/FRAND Policy on the Right Track? Kirti Gupta (Qualcomm) Michael Lawrence (Google) Anne Layne-Farrar (Charles River Associates) Douglas Melamed (Stanford University)
2: 45 p.m.	Session 5: Report Card for the PTAB Brian Love (Santa Clara University) David Kappos (Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP) Arti Rai (Duke University) Luke L. Dauchot (Kirkland & Ellis LLP)
3:45 p.m.	Break
4 p.m.	Session 6: Did eBay v. MercExchange Go Too Far? Jason Lo (Gibson Dunn and Crutcher LLP) Adam Mossoff (George Mason University) Ted Sichelman (San Diego University) Richard Gruner (University of Southern California)
5 p.m.	Closing

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Credit:

CLE materials for Feb. 22 Reforming Patent Reform conference

Conference on Competition Policy, Tech and IP

The Center for Transnational Law and Business hosted a conference on the Application of Competition Policy to Technology and IP Licensing on Friday, November 10, 2017, at the USC Gould School of Law. The conference provided a full day of panels comprised of regulators from several international jurisdictions, in-house attorneys, law firm lawyers, economists and academic experts discussing matters related to the legal, economic and business impact that the intersection of competition policy and IP has on technology and IP licensing.

Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Makan Delharim

Keynote speaker Assistant Attorney General Makan Delharim gave a speech which indicated a significant policy shift in terms of the role of antitrust rules in the context of IP in the technology sector.

Conference panel topics included:

• The Revised DOJ/FTC Antitrust Guidelines for IP Licensing
• A Roundtable of International Competition Officials on the Extraterritorial Antitrust Regulation of IP Licensing Agreements
• Recent Jurisprudence Related to SEPs in International Jurisdictions
• Intersection Between IP and Competition Policy: SEPs and FRAND Licensing

Featured speakers included Claudia Berg of the Competition & Markets Authority, U.K.; Kathleen Bradish of the International Section, U.S. Dept. of Justice; Ian Connor of the Bureau of Competition, U.S. Federal Trade Commission; Roger Featherston of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission; Hiroyuki Odagiri of the Japan Fair Trade Commission; and Yuanting Wang of the Anti-Monopoly Bureau, Ministry of Commerce, China.

View videos of the panel sessions

Download speaker conference materials:

• Panel 1 - IP Licensing and Antitrust Guidelines - View from Different Jurisdictions
  • Download Odagiri slides
  • Download Tan slides

• Panel 2 - Intersection Between IP and Competition Policy: SEPS and FRAND Licensing
  • Download Barnett slides

• Panel 3 - Recent Jurisprudence Related to SEPs in International Jurisdictions
  • Download Yen slides
  • Download Bose slides

• Panel 4 - Enforcer's Roundtable - Extraterritorial Antitrust Regulation of IP Licensing
  • Download Featherston slides
  • Download Wang slides

Conference on Antitrust Enforcement in a Global Context: Extraterritoriality and Due Process

The center held its inaugural conference on Antitrust Enforcement in a Global Context: Extraterritoriality and Due Process on January 13 and 14, 2017 at USC Gould.

Maureen Ohlhausen, commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission

Executives from Uber Technologies, Google, Amazon and Essential Patent led panel discussions on issues and challenges that companies face in addressing global antitrust enforcement, focusing on transparency, due process and comity in global antitrust proceedings. Panelists included regulators from several international jurisdictions, as well as in-house counsel, law firm attorneys and academics from around the world including China, Japan, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, Brazil, India, Hong Kong, Canada and the United States. The discussions spoke directly to the important and consequential legal questions that are affecting global business activity and the world economy.

Leading experts at the conference included Maureen Ohlhausen, commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission; Hideo Nakajima, secretary general of the Japan Fair Trade Commission; Vicky Eatrides, deputy commissioner of the Canadian Competition Bureau; Andy Chen, former commissioner, Taiwan Fair Trade Commission; Lynda Marshall, acting chief, Foreign Commerce Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division; and Yiqin Zhao, director of Economic Inspection Division, Competition Enforcement Bureau, State Administration for Industry & Commerce, China.

Video of Day 1 panel sessions featuring regulators and practitioners can be viewed here.

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