On May 12, 2015, CincyIP welcomes Daniel H. Brean to discuss 3D Printing and the Next Wave of Digital Infringement.

3D printing technology is advancing fast into new materials and applications every day.  It is also moving quickly from the workshop into the home. The technology itself is disruptive, but so are the newly emerging commercial sales infrastructures. Physical products can now be sold digitally directly to consumers, who themselves manufacture the products on their own printers.  All of this rapid development requires a reevaluation of longstanding traditions in patent claiming and enforcement.  Can digital representations of physical products be patented, and if so, how can they be claimed?  How does patent enforcement change when the consumers are also the manufacturers?  Can copyright protection bridge the gap?  This presentation will explore these and other issues to help prepare attorneys and industry participants to navigate the uncharted waters where IP and 3D printing intersect.

About Daniel H. Brean: Dan is a senior associate at The Webb Law Firm, an intellectual property boutique in Pittsburgh, PA.  His practice focuses primarily on Federal Circuit appeals and district court litigation in the network systems and software space.  He also has considerable expertise in industrial design patent protection and design patents.

Dan is a former law clerk to the Honorable Jimmie V. Reyna at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  He has a BS in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University, and he received his JD cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he was honored with the Faculty Award for Excellence in Legal Scholarship and the ABA-BNA Intellectual Property Law Award.  Dan is also an adjunct professor, teaching patent law, at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.  Dan’s scholarship studying the intellectual property implications of 3D printing has appeared in the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media, & Entertainment Law Journal.  Another paper is scheduled for publication by the Santa Clara Law Review in Spring 2015.  Dan has previously been invited to present selected aspects of his research at 3D-printing events hosted by the Global Strategic Management Institute and the International Trademark Association.

CincyBio 2015 is taking the place of CincyIP’s April meeting.

On March 10, 2015, CincyIP welcomes P. Andrew Riley and Jonathan R.K. Stroud, Patent Attorneys at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP, to discuss the rise of trade secret actions at the International Trade Commission, as well as the legislative push for a Federal cause of action for trade secret actions.

Almost thirty years ago, Congress empowered the ITC, through trial-like investigations on a truncated timeline, to exclude goods from the United States based on violations of any unfair trade practice, including misappropriation of trade secrets. The ITC offers distinct advantages over traditional litigation. In rem jurisdiction, powerful remedies, and a shortened timeline often lead to results for parties confronted with problematic international business disputes. The ITC’s doors are open to both foreign-originating and U.S.-based parties as long as the parties can establish the jurisdictional requirements. And recent decisions by the Federal Circuit and the ITC have strengthened trade secret law and allow parties to press violations where the misappropriation occurred entirely outside of the U.S.

To help guide parties presented with such disputes, Mr.. Stroud and Mr. Riley collected and analyzed all of the trade secret actions ever before the ITC in an article selected as one of the top 10 intellectual property articles of 2014. They offer insights into ITC trade secret practice, and discuss it in the context of the growing legislative effort to create a federal trade secret cause of action. Even parties well versed in ITC patent practice would do well to heed the value of including trade secret contentions in ITC complaints.