By Eileen Ennis, Sage Therapeutics

The Boston Intellectual Property Law Association (BIPLA) held its third annual symposium on May 3-4, 2023. The symposium was hosted by Josh Dalton, President-Elect, and his team at Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP. With over 70 attendees, this first in-person BIPLA symposium turned the vision of Michael Bergman, BIPLA President 2019-2020, into a reality. It brought together intellectual property professionals from a variety of practice areas for two stimulating days of panel discussions and networking.

Day one of the symposium featured five interactive panel sessions with two parallel tracks, each focused on either patents or trademarks and copyright. The sessions covered a range of substantive topics including freedom to operate in the biotechnology space, copyright and generative artificial intelligence, FemTech medical devices, trademark law and the First Amendment, anti-trust issues in patent dispute settlements, trade secrets and the Federal Government, European Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court, licensing grant language, functional patent claiming, and the ITC as a venue. While it was difficult to choose which of the sessions to attend, the opportunity to branch outside of one’s own practice area was refreshing and informative.

Scott Kirsner and Phil Swain presented The Innovation Trail during the lunch keynote address. They described multiple sites of innovation in the Boston/Cambridge area, all located on a walkable trail. It was clear from the presentation that Boston has a long history as a center of innovation for many different types of technology that impact our day-to-day lives. Scott and Phil also highlighted several instances where intellectual property played a critical role in determining how and where innovation developed. Take advantage of the nice weather and walk the trail with the interactive website map: https://www.theinnovationtrail.org/#map

The day ended with a networking reception, which was a great opportunity for additional discussion and building new connections.

Day two of the symposium included three plenary sessions. The first was a Q&A with Terry Adams, IP Marketing Specialist of Howard University. Terry described his efforts to build out the intellectual property function at the university. By showing researchers how their innovation can most effectively improve society when it is coupled with intellectual property protection, he is effecting a cultural change in how intellectual property is viewed at Howard. The second session was a panel of intellectual property attorneys who shared their experiences working in a variety of sectors including private practice, industry, academia, government, and as individual consultants. They each described a unique career path from their initial move into intellectual property to their current role. The day rounded off with an ethics presentation by Mike McCabe about enforcement around fraudulent trademark and design applications before the USPTO resulting from the recent uptick in fraudulent filings by foreign entities.

Mark your calendar for next year’s symposium, which will be held at Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP on April 10-11, 2024. It is sure to be another exciting event!