Intellectual Property Law and Innovation Symposium
"The America Invents Act: Patent Law's New Lease on Life"
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
Brochure (PDF) | Symposium Info/Registration
Keynote
Chief Circuit Judge (Retired) Paul R. Michel was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in March of 1988. After his elevation to Chief Judge in 2004, he served on the Judicial Conference of the United States, and has served on its Executive Committee. In 2010, Chief Judge Michel stepped down from the bench after serving more than 22 years on the court, during which he judged thousands of appeals and wrote hundreds of opinions in patent cases. Following graduation from Williams College in 1963 and the University of Virginia Law School in 1966, Judge Michel served in the executive and legislative branches for 22 years in a variety of positions, including Associate Deputy Attorney General and Acting Deputy Attorney General. Judge Michel has annually been named by Managing Intellectual Property magazine as one of the 50 Most Influential People in the world in intellectual property since 2003. In 2008 he was awarded the first annual Lifetime Achievement Award by the Richard Linn American Inn of Court, and the Sedona Conference Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2010 he received the U.S.P.T.O’s Federico Award for “outstanding contribution to the Patent and Trademark Systems of the United States of America”; the North American Lifetime Achievement Award by Managing Intellectual Property Magazine; the Distinguished Intellectual Property Professional Award from the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation; the career achievement award of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA); and was one of five global figures inducted into Intellectual Asset Management magazine’s Intellectual Property Hall of Fame.
Additional Speakers
Robert A. Armitage joined Eli Lilly and Company in 1999 and became senior vice president and general counsel for Eli Lilly and Company in January 2003. Previously he worked as chief IP counsel for The Upjohn Company and as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Vinson & Elkins LLP. He is a member and a past president of the American IP Law Association and the Association of Corporate Patent Counsel. He is also a past chair of the Patent Committee of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the National Council of IP Law Associations, the IP Committee of the National Association of Manufacturers, the Fellows of the American IP Law Association, and the IP Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan. He has served as an adjunct professor of law at George Washington University, a member of the board of directors of Human Genome Sciences, Inc., and president of the board of directors of the Hospice of Southwest Michigan, Inc. He has also served as a member of the board of directors of both IP Owners and the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation. He has served as a member of council for the ABA’s IP Law Section, and as a member of the Advisory Board for the Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal . He holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
Dr. Miriam Bitton is a law professor at Bar-Ilan University School of Law in Ramat-Gan, Israel. She received her LL.B. and LL.M. degrees at Bar-Ilan University School of Law, as well as another Master of Laws at University of Michigan Law School and her S.J.D. at Michigan. A former Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at DePaul University College of Law, she was also the Microsoft Research Fellow at U.C. Berkeley School of Law and a Visiting Fellow at George Washington University Law School. Dr. Bitton is writing and teaching in the fields of intellectual property law, law and technology, and property. She is the winner of the Alon Fellowship for the years 2009-2011 (granted by the Council of Higher Education in Israel to promising junior faculty members in Israel) and the 100,000 EUROs Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant (bestowed by the European Union Commission).
Professor Kevin Collins is a scholar and teacher of intellectual property law. He taught at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington until, in 2010, he joined the faculty at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. He earned his B.A. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale and his J.D. from Stanford. He clerked for Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Raymond Clevenger III on the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. Having earned an M.Arch.from Columbia and worked as a project architect and lead designer with Bernard Tschumi Architects, Professor Collins is also interested in the intersection of law and architecture.
Kevin R. Erdman is a partner at Barnes & Thornburg and a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property Department. He concentrates his practice on information, internet and intellectual property law, with a dual focus on patent, copyright, trademark issues and peripheral software, privacy issues in corporate, commercial, and entrepreneurial settings. A regular contributor to publications, he often speaks on IP and information security issues. He has been included in The Best Lawyers in America ® and Indiana Super Lawyers numerous times. He earned his B.S. in computer science from IU, and his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has presented on internet law and privacy as a lecturer at both of IU’s law schools, as well as at Anderson University. Erdman is a member of TechPoint and the IRTP Working Group of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
E. Anthony (Tony) Figg , ’73 is a shareholder and President of the Washington, D.C. firm of Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, P.C. He represents and advises clients in patent litigation, procurement, reexaminations, interferences, IP licensing and related matters. A graduate of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and IU School of Law – Indianapolis, he has practiced patent law for more than 35 years. He is a past chair of the ABA’s IP law section and has chaired numerous committees and divisions of that organization for more than 25 years. He is a longstanding member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He also served on the Executive Committee of AIPPI United States, which is the U.S. group of the Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle , an international association of IP professionals.
Alex Forman , ‘01 is a partner in Ice Miller’s Intellectual Property Group. His practice encompasses all facets of intellectual property law with an emphasis on information technology, licensing, patent, trademark and copyright portfolio management, and assisting clients in developing and implementing strategies that identify, protect and enforce their intellectual property assets. He represents clients in obtaining patent and trademark protection in the U.S. and abroad in the fields of information technology, clean technology, renewable energy, sustainable development, manufacturing, mechanical, life sciences, and chemical compositions. In such representations, he works closely with the business management, marketing, legal, and research and development teams to determine goals and strategies in protecting the business’s assets. Forman serves as lead counsel in the negotiation of a variety of complex intellectual property and information technology transactions. His experiences include dealing with the acquisition of intellectual property assets in corporate transactions and representing both vendors and purchasers of information technology systems and related services. He is admitted to practice law in the state of Indiana and to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Janet Gongola , ‘03 is the Patent Reform Coordinator at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In this capacity, she manages all aspects of the agency’s implementation of the America Invents Act. She has been an Associate Solicitor in the Office of the Solicitor at the USPTO where she provided legal advice to agency officials and defended decisions of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit as well as district courts across the country. Before joining the USPTO, Gongola served as a law clerk for Chief Judge Paul R. Michel at the Federal Circuit and for Chief Judge Sue L. Robinson in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. She previously worked as a patent attorney, patent agent, and research chemist at Eli Lilly and Company. An officer of the Giles S. Rich American Inn of Court, she has served as an adjunct professor at the George Mason University School of Law and currently teaches at the George Washington University Law School. A summa cum laude graduate of IU School of Law – Indianapolis, she received her B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics from Muskingum University.
Norm Hedges is partner on the Intellectual Property team at Baker & Daniels LLP. A graduate of the Purdue University School of Mechanical Engineering and the Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington, Norm practices primarily in patent procurement, litigation avoidance, and licensing.
Professor Jay P. Kesan is Professor and H. Ross & Helen Workman Research Scholar and Director of the Program in Intellectual Property & Technology Law at the University of Illinois. He clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and he worked as a patent attorney in the former firm of Pennie & Edmonds LLP. He continues to be active in the area of patent litigation and he has served as a Special Master in patent lawsuits. An author of several books and articles in the area of intellectual property, his academic interests and writings are in the area of patent law, cyberlaw, entrepreneurship, and law and technology. He is a registered patent attorney and received his J.D. summa cum laude from Georgetown University. He also has a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and worked for several years as a research scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York.
Professor Gerard N. Magliocca, the Samuel R. Rosen Professor of Law, joined the faculty of IU School of Law – Indianapolis following two years as an associate with Covington & Burling and one year as a clerk for Judge Guido Calabresi on the Second Circuit. He received the Best New Professor Award from the student body in 2004 and the Black Cane (Most Outstanding Professor) Award in 2006. In 2007, his book on Andrew Jackson was the subject of an hour-long program on C-Span’s “Book TV.” His most recent book, The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan: Constitutional Law and the Politics of Backlash (Yale Univ. Press) appeared earlier this year. In the Fall of 2008, Professor Magliocca held the Fulbright-Dow Distinguished Research Chair of the Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg, The Netherlands. He is also a regular blogger on Concurring Opinions and Balkinization . He was recently named Associate Dean for Research.
Professor Emily Morris came to IU School of Law – Indianapolis during the summer of 2008. She teaches patent law, copyright law, and intellectual property survey courses. Before joining the IU faculty, Professor Morris was a visiting associate professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, where she taught both Patent Law and Patent Litigation. She earned her A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard University and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School magna cum laude, where she was an articles editor on the Michigan Law Review . She clerked for the Honorable Bruce M. Selya on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and then worked as an associate in the Issues & Appeals section of the Washington, D.C. office of Jones Day. She also served as an adjunct assistant professor and Humphrey Fellow in Law and Economic Policy at the John M. Olin Center for Law and Economics, University of Michigan Law School. Her research and teaching interests include patent law, health law and bioethics, Japanese law, and law and economic analysis. Her current work focuses on economic analysis of various patent law issues, including the effects of patent claim construction and scope on incentives and innovation.
Douglas K. Norman , ‘88 is Vice President and General Patent Counsel for Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. He received his B.S. in Microbiology from IU in 1981 and his J.D. cum laude from the IU School of Law – Indianapolis in 1988. His practice has included many aspects of patent law, including procurement, licensing, and litigation. He is a member of the Board of Intellectual Property Owner’s Association, where he currently serves as president, and where he has also served as treasurer from 2008-2009 and as chair of the Amicus Committee from 2003 through 2005 and as Chair of the Annual Meeting in 2006. He is also a member of Interpat. Norman is currently Chair of the National Association of Manufacturer’s subcommittee for Intellectual Property. He was the 2002 co-chair of the Intellectual Property and Anti-Trust Task Force for the United States Council for International Business and served from 2002 through 2006 as the Chair of the Intellectual Property Task Force for PhRMA.
Charles R. Reeves , ‘77 has over 35 years of experience in all aspects of intellectual property law as a partner in Woodard, Emhardt, Moriarty, McNett & Henry LLP. Prior to joining the firm, he received a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering cum laude from Purdue University and a J.D. from IU School of Law – Indianapolis, summa cum laude . He also served as judicial law clerk for the Hon. Paul H. Buchanan, Jr. on the Indiana Court of Appeals. Over the years, Reeves has enjoyed a diverse practice concentrating in patent and trademark prosecution and opinion work, in licensing, due diligence and other transactional work and strategic client counseling, and in litigation work in the federal courts and other venues. He has written and lectured on intellectual property law matters, has served as an adjunct at both IU law schools, and currently teaches a course on International Intellectual Property Law IU School of Law – Indianapolis.
Professor John R. Schaibley, III is the Executive Director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law and Innovation at the IU School of Law – Indianapolis. Professor Schaibley has more than 25 years of litigation experience, concentrating on intellectual property cases, especially patent litigation A graduate of Purdue University (B.A., 1975), Schaibley graduated first in his law school class, summa cum laude , at the IU Maurer School of Law (J.D 1981), where he was Executive Editor of the Indiana Law Journal and a member of the Moot Court Board. He was awarded the Order of the Coif and the Order of Barristers and received three West Publishing Company Hornbook Awards, four American Jurisprudence Awards, and a Corpus Juris Secundum Award for Significant Legal Scholarship. Professor Schaibley served as a law clerk at all three levels of the federal judiciary, clerking for Justice John Paul Stevens at the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge Jesse E. Eschbach at both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. His many awards include the American College of Trial Lawyers Medal for Excellence in Advocacy and he was recently honored as one of “The Best Lawyers in America” in the category of Bet-the-Company Litigation for 2010. Professor Schaibley teaches Patent Litigation and Intellectual Property Survey.
Nancy G. Tinsley , ‘90 has spent over 20 years representing clients in litigation matters and has focused her practice in the area of intellectual property, particularly patents. Currently, she is Associate General Patent Counsel at Roche
Diagnostics where she is responsible for U.S. patent litigation. Prior to joining Roche Diagnostics in 2008, Tinsley was a partner at Baker & Daniels LLP representing clients in intellectual property litigation matters. She has authored many articles and spoken at various conferences and seminars on litigation and intellectual property legal issues.
Mike Young , ‘87 holds B.A. and M.S. degrees from Purdue University, as well as a J.D. from IU School of Law-Indianapolis. Following graduation from Purdue, he worked as a research chemist in the field of Medical Diagnostics and in the field of Pharmaceuticals. He began his career as a lawyer in 1988 at the Indianapolis Law Firm of Baker & Daniels, where I practiced law in both the Environmental and Intellectual Property Law fields. He then joined Boehringer Mannheim in 1990 as Assistant Patent Counsel, and after the acquisition of Boehringer Mannheim by Roche, became Chief Patent Counsel in 1998. In 2006, he was promoted to Vice President & Chief Intellectual Property Counsel. He has been honored as an Indiana Super Lawyer in the field of IP law from 2005 – 2009. He has also served as Chairman of the IP section of the Indiana State Bar Association.

