On Thursday, January 14th, Barry Herman, IP litigator and Baltimore Office Managing Partner participated as a panelist for a Maryland State Bar Association event: Hey Alexa, Can You Get a Patent or Register for a Copyright?
As part of the MSBA Legal Summit Series, Barry along with 2 other Baltimore attorneys hosted a lively interactive discussion concerning hot topics facing IP practitioners, including: 1) implications of AI, IoT, and other Emerging Technologies on Intellectual Property Law; 2) the latest trends and decisions from the PTAB concerning post-grant review proceedings (is the PTAB still a “death squad killing patent rights?”); and 3) the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court’s fascination with: copyright law (after a 5-year stretch in which the Court issued a total of 3 copyright rulings, it will issue 3 rulings this term, including Google v. Oracle, which addresses the extent to which copyright law covers certain software code); and trademark law (after deciding 3 trademark cases over the past 4 terms, the Court will rule on 3 trademark cases, including USPTO v. Booking.com BV., which will decide whether adding an appendage such as “.com” to an otherwise generic term can transform it into a distinctive one).
The event was hosted by the MSBA IP Section, of which Nicholas Hawkins, IP & Corporate associate in the Baltimore office, is Chair.