It is my pleasure and honor to step into the role of president of this great association and introduce the first edition of our newsletter in 2026. I would also like to thank everyone who participated in BIPLA programming in 2025, including attending our Annual Meeting in December. We had a great year in 2025 and look forward to connecting and learning from each other in 2026 as well!
As you will see in this edition, BIPLA is off to a great start, connecting with IP stakeholders abroad through collaboration with the WorldBoston organization and the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, as well as visiting foreign counsel. We also celebrated local innovation and inventors with our Invented Here! event. And we continued our support of the next generation through programs like the Introduction to Careers in IP Law event, AIPLA Giles Rich Moot Court Competition, and our Writing Competition (the winning papers of our 2025 competition are featured here).
There is much to look forward to as well, most prominently including the IP Symposium on April 13–14, 2026. Registration is open for this great event—for individual tickets and organization sponsorship—and I encourage everyone to attend. The event offers great opportunities for education and networking with colleagues.
Thank you for your continued support of BIPLA and please reach out with any suggestions for programming that you would like to see. We look forward to working together in the months ahead.
Derek Roller
President, Boston Intellectual Property Law Association
Message from the Editor | 2026 Invented Here! Recap | International & Foreign Practice Committee Hosts Japan Patent Attorneys Association |
The BIPLA marked the beginning of the 2025-26 program year with a convivial Annual Meeting at the Harvard Club, electing its new slate of Officers and Board Members. We celebrated the winners of the annual Writing Competition, whose enlightening papers are published in this issue of the Newsletter. | The Boston Intellectual Property Law Association (BIPLA) celebrated this year’s Honorees at the 15th Annual Invented Here! event held on March 4, 2026, at the Cambridge Innovation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Invented Here! event is an exciting evening celebration dedicated to showcasing inventors and innovations from across New England’s vibrant innovation community. | On January 28, 2026, BIPLA's International & Foreign Practice Committee hosted a virtual event entitled “Navigating Japanese Patent & Trademark Law: Insights from Practitioners.” The event was organized in conjunction with the International Activities Center (the “IAC”) of the Japan Patent Attorneys Association. Yuichiro Suzuki opened the program with an informative overview of the IAC and its role within the Japan Patent Attorneys Association. Mr. Suzuki's remarks were followed by substantive presentations from Asako Yoneguichi of CP Japan and Kotaro Ito of Konishi & Nakamura. <<Read More>> |
BIPLA-WorldBoston Global Delegation Visit | BIPLA Event on Introduction to Careers in IP Law | Minutes of the BIPLA Annual Meeting |
On March 9, 2026, BIPLA Board Member Jonathan B. Roses and BIPLA Biotechnology Committee Co-Chair Kady Bruce met with a visiting delegation of over 20 participants from around the globe to discuss protecting IP for the promotion of innovation and trade. The delegation was sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program , which facilitates professional exchanges between Americans and international leaders in government, business, academia, and other fields. <<Read More>> | On March 10, 2026, the BIPLA held an event entitled Introduction to Careers in IP Law. The event was hosted at Boston College Law School and was an opportunity for students to learn about various career tracks within the field of intellectual property law. The panel included Anant Saraswat of Wolf Greenfield, Chairperson of the BIPLA’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee; BIPLA Past President Michael Bergman of Bergman LLC; BIPLA President-Elect Valarie Rosen of Cabot Corporation; and Naomi Bass, Associate Director of Career Services at Boston College Law School. | Following a networking cocktail hour, President Emily Whelan called the meeting to order and presented welcoming remarks, in which she recapped the Association’s main events of the year and thanked the event’s sponsors, the BIPLA Board, her activities chair, Tim Cook, and the 2025 committee chairs for their service. She also thanked the Association’s Events & Communications Manager, Spencer Jawitz, for his work over the past year. President Whelan also recognized all BIPLA past presidents in attendance. Finally, President Whelan led the meeting in a moment of silent remembrance for BIPLA members who passed away in 2025. <<Read More>> |
BIPLA Annual Writing Competition | 2026 Moot Court Recap | BIPLA - WorldBoston French Delegation Visit |
BIPLA is once again holding its annual Writing Competition. Law school students are invited to submit papers relating to topics involving intellectual property law. Judges will consider the merits of each paper based on: (i) contribution to knowledge respecting intellectual property law; and (ii) the extent to which it displays original and creative thought or information not previously published or available. The requirements for eligibility are outlined below. | On March 13-15, the BIPLA hosted the Northeast Regional Competition for the Giles S. Rich Moot Court, sponsored by AIPLA. Ten teams converged on Suffolk Law School for a round robin competition on Friday, followed by elimination rounds on Saturday. Sunday’s finals were held in the main moot court room at Suffolk. This year’s Northeast Regional winner was a local team comprised of Harvard Law students, with the Temple Law School team as runners up. | On December 19, 2025, BIPLA President Derek Roller, President-Elect Valarie Rosen, and Board Member Jonathan B. Roses met with a visiting delegation from France to discuss IP in the biotech and research space. The delegation was sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program , which facilitates professional exchanges between Americans and international leaders in government, business, academia, and other fields <<Read More>> |
First Place Winner: 2025 Writing Competition | Second Place Winner: 2025 Writing Competition | 2026 Symposium |
In an online landscape where algorithm-driven social media platforms host millions of users that create, post, or interact with material that is infringing on its face, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is failing. In 1998, Congress passed the DMCA to address emerging methods of copyright infringement that accompanied the public’s use of the internet and other technologies. The DMCA shields online service providers (OSPs) from liability for a user’s infringement if the OSP enacts the prescribed reporting mechanism for copyright holders to remove infringing content online. Now, copyright holders face another significant challenge: generative AI systems have emboldened its users with unprecedented opportunities and abilities to infringe, while certain OSPs circulate––and thus, promote––AI-generated, infringing derivative content. | As artificial intelligence becomes the backbone of digital infrastructure, new legal challenges emerge, such as: who controls the tools that make AI possible? Companies like Nvidia, Google, and OpenAI are rapidly acquiring exclusive control over essential AI technologies, including GPUs, machine learning frameworks, and proprietary training datasets. These assets increasingly function like standard-essential patents (SEPs) in that they are foundational to building and operating AI systems, yet they remain outside traditional legal protections designed for standardized technologies. While SEP/FRAND frameworks were designed to ensure compatibility and open access in standardized industries like telecommunications and computing, they do not adequately address the structure, speed, or lack of transparency in AI development. This paper argues that without adaptation, the existing SEP/FRAND models may allow dominant firms/companies to exploit their market position which would create barriers to competition and innovation even though it appears to operate within the bounds of patent protection. | Join us at Wilmer Hale for the 2026 Symposium. Tickets and Sponsorships are available at: https://bipla.org/event/IP-Symposium |