Posts Tagged: "CON2020"

Headlining day two of IPWatchdog’s CON2020 was Retired U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) Chief Judge Paul Michel, who offered attendees 12 “perspectives” on the present-day Federal Circuit to provide context for some of the Court’s current problems. Ultimately, said Michel, these problems need to be fixed via legislation, not the courts, and the key to speeding up that legislative process is for individuals and companies to become involved and proactively advocate for patent reform at the local level.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director, Andrei Iancu, joined day one of Virtual CON2020 today to chat with IPWatchdog CEO and Founder Gene Quinn about topics including counterfeiting, Chinese IP theft, and the continued confusion in the courts and at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) around patent eligibility. On the topic of Section 101 and patent eligibility, Quinn lamented the recent American Axle decision, wondering if the holding that an invention involving a drive shaft could be considered directed to a law of nature represents a broader and growing disrespect for intellectual property. Iancu could not comment on the case itself, but said that with respect to the basic principle, “you’re absolutely right.

Due to the continuing COVID-19 outbreak in Texas, we will unfortunately not be able to host a live CON2020 program in September as previously planned. Over the past several weeks, we have been working with sponsors and registrants to make arrangements. We greatly appreciate the support we’ve received. Thank you. Instead, we are pleased to announce that we will bring CON2020 to you VIRTUALLY and for FREE starting September 1, 2020.

We have great news to share with all of our IPWatchdog CON2020 Speakers, Sponsors, Exhibitors and registrants. We have finally worked out an amicable resolution with the hotel. Although we will still hold a Virtual Program of some sort on Monday, March 16, IPWatchdog CON2020 is no longer canceled. We have rescheduled for Sunday, September 13 through Tuesday, September 15, to be held at the Renaissance Dallas Richardson. The program will be nearly identical to the live program we had scheduled for next week. More details to follow. 

Much has been written on women’s disproportionate numbers as scientists trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), as well the under-representation of women as inventors of record on USPTO patents. These statistics relate to women’s role in scientific development and inventorship, or in other words: in the creation of intellectual property (IP). Having said that, the reasons why women don’t get funded have little to do with IP, and much to do with the institutional structure of the venture capital (VC) ecosystem, as well as the corporate representation (or lack thereof) of women in senior management and board positions.