2015 Spring Symposium: Intellectual Property Strategy in the Digital Age

The Journal will present its 2015 symposium on the topic of Franchise Law at the Wake Forest University School of Law on Friday, February 6, 2015. The event is free to everyone and has been approved for CLE credit. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

If you would like to attend and receive CLE credit, please email Symposium Editor Brinson Taylor at [email protected] with your name and bar number to sign up.

Follow @WFULawJBIPL on Twitter for live updates and feedback from the event.

Introduction 

The Wake Forest Journal of Business and Intellectual Property Law publishes legal scholarship pertaining to a wide variety of topics within the fields of intellectual property and business law, while attempting to focus specifically on the intersection between the two. To that end, the Journal will host and publish a symposium on Friday, February 6, 2015 regarding intellectual property strategy in the digital age, an area of the law that particularly incorporates both business and intellectual property law.

Our target audience for this symposium is comprised of local attorneys, judges, academics, and students. We hope that this presentation will teach our audiences about the evolution and future outlook of intellectual property law as it pertains to the current and future economic and regulatory environment and enlighten each audience member on the intersection of business and intellectual property law.

The Journal is seeking approval from the North Carolina Bar Association to offer CLE credit to attorneys who attend our symposium. We are confident that this symposium will be informative and benefit the North Carolina legal community. The symposium will be held in Room 1319 (the large courtroom) and will run from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with a break for lunch. A complete list of speakers with a brief description of their qualifications is below. The tentative schedule is as follows.

8:30 – 8:50 am: Breakfast

8:50 – 8:55 am: Opening Remarks
Speaker: Suzanne Reynolds, Dean, Wake Forest University School of Law

8:55 – 9:15 am: Current Issues in IP Strategy in the Digital Age
Speaker:  David Levine

9:15-10:25 am: Managing Patents in Digital World
Speakers: Steve Gardner, Rob Tiller, Keith Robinson, Simone Rose

10:25-10:40 am: Break

10:40 am – 11:50 am: Trademarks and the Internet
Speakers: Rod Enns, Art DeBaugh, Tiffani Otey

11:50 am – 12:25 pm: Lunch

12:25 – 12:50 pm: Keynote Speaker, Rep. George Holding 

12:50 – 2:00 pm: A Guided Conversation Regarding Hot Issues in Intellectual Property
Speakers: William J. Roberts, Chris Matton, Mark Prak

2:00 – 2:15 pm: Break

2:15 – 3:25 pm: Copyright Law in the Entertainment Industry
Speakers: D.R. Jones, Harris Henderson 

3:25-3:30 pm: Concluding remarks

Participants

PROFESSOR DAVID LEVINE

David S. Levine is an Associate Professor of Law at Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, North Carolina.  He is an Affiliate Scholar at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School (CIS), and a 2014-2015 Visiting Research Collaborator at Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP). He is also the founder and host of Hearsay Culture on KZSU-FM (Stanford University), an information policy, intellectual property law and technology talk show for which he has recorded over 200 interviews since May 2006. Hearsay Culture was named as a top five podcast in the ABA’s Blawg 100 of 2008 and can be found at http://hearsayculture.com. His scholarship, which has been published in several law reviews including Florida, North Carolina and Stanford Online, focuses on the operation of intellectual property law at the intersection of technology and public life, specifically information flows in the lawmaking and regulatory process and intellectual property law’s impact on public and private secrecy, transparency, and accountability. He has spoken about his work in numerous venues, from the American Political Science Association annual meeting to the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, and internationally.

 Education:

Case Western Law School (1998)

Cornell University, B.S. Industrial and Labor Relations (1994)

George Mason University (Robinson Seminar Scholar Honors Program) (1990–1992)

STEVE GARDNER

Steve Gardner is a patent attorney with Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, LLP, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  He concentrates his practice on intellectual property, with a primary focus on patent litigation and counseling. He is a registered patent attorney.  Mr. Gardner has been elected for many years to Business North Carolina magazine’s “Legal Elite” List as one of the top patent attorneys in North Carolina based on a survey of all members of the North Carolina bar. He was recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® for Intellectual Property Law in 2015 and the eight years immediately preceding. He is listed as a #1 band attorney in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 editions of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business for Intellectual Property.

Education:

Wake Forest University, J.D. with honors (1994)

University of North Carolina at Charlotte, M.S., Electrical Engineering

University of North Carolina at Charlotte, B.S., Electrical Engineering, Phi Kappa Phi, Tau Beta Pi

ROB TILLER

Rob Tiller serves as vice president and assistant general counsel of Red Hat, Inc., in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is responsible for Red Hat s internal intellectual property team, covering open source licensing, copyright, patent, and trademark law. Tiller also works on the development of policies and strategies related to open source legal matters. Tiller joined Red Hat from Helms, Mulliss & Wicker, PLLC, where he was a partner specializing in intellectual property and technology litigation, commercial litigation, and antitrust. He also served as a law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court and for Judge Stephen Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Education:

University of Virginia, J.D. (1986)

Oberlin College, B.A. Government (1977)

W. KEITH ROBINSON

W. Keith Robinson an assistant professor at the SMU Dedman School of Law.  Professor Robinson joined the Dedman School of Law in 2011.  Before SMU, Professor Robinson was an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School.  Professor Robinson teaches and writes in the areas of property, intellectual property, patent law, and technology law.  His current research focuses on analyzing the challenges small firms face in obtaining patent rights in the U.S. Patent system.  Professor Robinson practiced law at Foley and Lardner LLP as a member of the electronics practice group in Washington, D.C.  There, he assisted clients in various areas of patent law including counseling through negotiations, opinions, prosecution, and strategic IP issues including evaluating emerging technology.

Education:

Duke University School of Law, J.D., cum laude (2004)

Duke University School of Engineering, B.S.E. (1999)

ROD ENNS

Rod Enns is a trademark and intellectual property attorney with Enns and Archer, LLP, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Rod has practiced law for more than twenty-five years, focusing for most of his career on litigation and counseling in intellectual property, antitrust, and trade regulation matters.  He has been active in the International Trademark Association for many years, and currently sits on its Board of Directors, as well as on its U.S. Legislation Subcommittee on the U.S. Federal Trademark Dilution Act in 2003, whose work resulted in passage by Congress of the Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006.  He was also a founding member of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association.  Rod formerly practiced in the Winston-Salem office of Kilpatrick Townsend (1983-2001) and with the Denver firm of Lohf and Barnhill, P.C. (1979-83).

Education:

Harvard University, J.D., cum laude (1979)

University of Washington, B.A. with distinction in Philosophy, magna cum  laude (1976)

ART DEBAUGH

Art DeBaugh is a trademark and intellectual property attorney with Bell, Davis, & Pitt, P.A. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  He has more than 25 years of experience assisting clients with their trademarks and intellectual property, including copyrights and trade secrets. He represents clients in a wide range of industries, such as consumer packaged goods, retail, textile/apparel, food and beverage, biotech, software, and health care. Art has prosecuted and served as attorney-of-record for more than 3,000 trademark applications filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In addition to developing brand strategies and protection plans, he also helps clients leverage their intellectual assets for strategic advantage and revenue maximization and provides brand registration and enforcement services.

Education:

University of North Carolina School of Law, J.D., with honors (1988)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A., with highest honors (1985)

TIFFANI OTEY

Tiffani Otey is an attorney with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, LLC, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  She practices on the firm’s Trademark Team, focusing the majority of her work on trademark-related matters. Specifically, Tiffani assists clients in all aspects of trademark protection, from selection of an available trademark, to protection of that mark under the applicable federal and common laws, to enforcement of that mark against infringements and unauthorized uses. She is experienced with practice before the United States Trademark Office and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Tiffani also routinely assists clients with domain name disputes, including retrieving domain names from cyber-squatters through application of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy and other similar policies.

Education:

Wake Forest, J.D., cum laude (2010)

University of Maryland, B.A. (2007)

GEORGE HOLDING - *Keynote Speaker*

Representative Holding was born April 17, 1968, and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. He obtained a law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law.  In 1998, he left the practice of law to serve as legislative counsel to U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms in Washington. In 2002, Holding joined the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of North Carolina. In September 2006, Holding was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the U.S. Attorney. He resigned as U.S. Attorney in 2011 and announced he would run for Congress. He was elected to Congress in November 2012 and sworn in on January 3, 2013. Representative Holding has been named to the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for the 113th Congress.

Education:

Wake Forest University, J.D. (1996 )

Wake Forest University, B.A. (1991)

WILLIAM J. ROBERTS

William J. Roberts is Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Public Information and Education for the United States Copyright Office (USCO).  He was appointed to the position in 2014.  Roberts joined the USCO in 1987 as an attorney in the Office of General Counsel after having previously been in private practice.  He was a Judge on the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board from 2006 to 2013, and he was previously an adjunct professor at the Catholic University Columbus School of Law and the George Mason University School of Law.

Education:

University of Virginia School of Law, J.D.

College of the Holy Cross, A.B.

CHRIS MATTON

Chris Matton is the General Counsel for Bandwidth, Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Chris oversees and provides support and counsel for corporate, human resources, intellectual property, and regulatory matters. Prior to joining the Bandwidth team in July 2010, Chris was a partner at Kilpatrick Stockton LLP.  Chris has worked with companies ranging from early stage to publicly traded companies.  He has represented clients in connection with venture capital financings, private equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, public and private offerings of securities, and other corporate matters.

Education:

Wake Forest University, J.D. (1994)

University of Pennsylvania – The Wharton School (1991)

MARK PRAK

Mark Prak is an attorney with Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP in Raleigh, N.C.  Mr. Prak’s principal clients are businesses and trade associations of businesses operating websites, television stations, radio stations, cable television systems, newspapers, magazines, radio networks, television production companies, telephone companies, wire services, and other communications enterprises.  Mr. Prak has represented communications businesses and state and national trade associations in administrative rule making proceedings before the Federal Communications Commission and other government agencies on issues such as retransmission consent, network affiliation agreements, political broadcasting rules, satellite carriage of television signals, digital television, digital radio, low-power FM radio, syndicated program exclusivity, cable television’s compulsory copyright license, the siting of broadcast towers, equal employment opportunity, and, in recent years, everything relating to broadband and high-speed internet issues.

Education:

Duke University, J.D. (1980)

Duke University, A.B. magna cum laude (1977)

D.R. JONES

D.R. Jones is an assistant professor at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.  She is also Associate Dean for Information Resources and Law Library Director.  Professor Jones teaches copyright, and her research focuses on issues in copyright, privacy, and information policy.  She is the 2014 winner of the American Association of Law Libraries Article of the Year Award.  Her most recent article focuses on fair use analysis in recent court decisions regarding law firm use of copyrighted materials in patent applications.  She has spoken about her work at the Intellectual Property Scholars’ Conference and the Works in Progress Intellectual Property (WIPIP)  Colloquium.  Professor Jones has also been a participant in the Privacy Law Scholars’ Conference and is the current Chair of the American Association of Law Libraries’ Copyright Committee.

Education:

University of Washington, Master of Librarianship (1991)

Mercer University School of Law, J.D. cum laude (1982)

Mercer University, B.A. summa cum laude (1979)

HARRIS HENDERSON

Harris Henderson focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation in both copyright and trademark law at Kilpatrick Stockton & Townsend, LLP.  While in law school at the University of Georgia, Mr. Henderson received the American Bar Association & Bureau of National Affairs Award for Excellence in the Study of Intellectual Property. Prior to law school, Mr. Henderson spent two years working in the film industry culminating with two of the films he was involved with premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007.

Education:

University of Georgia School of Law, J.D. (2009)
cum laude

University of Georgia, B.A., English (2001)
with honors

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.A., English (2003)