Patent Law 2011 in Review: Charting the Shifting Currents

The beginning of the new year is a good time to focus on the decisions made by the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit in 2011, as well as the changes already in place and those to come arising from passage of the America Invents Act. In this MCLE accredited program, partner Robert Goldman and associate Gail Williams will bring you up-to-date on the cutting-edge issues in patent law. Topics include:

• Claim construction – Tension in the Federal Circuit about the effects of the written description requirement on claim interpretation
• Patent-eligible subject matter after Bilski – What has been decided, what is currently in play, and how it affects information technology and biotech companies
• Therasense and the new standards for inequitable conduct – Ethical considerations in the absence of the sliding scale approach
• Microsoft v. i4i – What you need to know about the presumption of validity and curative instruction for nondisclosed art
• The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act – Highlights of the new rules affecting joinder of defendants in multiparty litigation, best mode, patent marking and the coming change to “first-inventor-to-file”