Robert Barr - Robert Barr is the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology. Formerly, he was vice president for intellectual property and worldwide patent counsel for Cisco Systems in San Jose, California, where he was responsible for all patent prosecution, licensing and litigation.
Barr has taught at University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) and at Hastings College of the Law, where he was an adjunct professor of patent law from 1994 to 1999.
A frequent speaker on patent reform, Barr has testified twice at the Federal Trade Commission hearings on Competition and Intellectual Property Law and Policy in the Knowledge-Based Economy. He was named by the Daily Journal as one of the top 25 intellectual property lawyers in California in 2003, and as one of the top 10 in-house intellectual property lawyers in 2004.
Elizabeth A. Howard - Elizabeth Howard, an intellectual property partner in the Silicon Valley office, is co-chair of the firm's life sciences practice. She focuses her practice on patent infringement litigation, with an emphasis on the life sciences. Her practice also includes trade secret, contract and licensing disputes, and client counseling. In addition to litigating in numerous federal district courts, and California state courts.
Dr. Howard has appeared before the U.S. PTO in interference proceedings, arbitrated before the International Chamber of Commerce, and tried numerous criminal cases as a deputy district attorney for the County of Santa Clara. She is listed in PLC, life sciences: intellectual property.
Thomas E. Kuhnle - Thomas Kuhnle is a partner at Bingham McCutchen.
Robert P. Merges - Before joining the Boalt faculty in 1995, Robert Merges was a faculty member at Boston University School of Law and served as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School.
Merges has authored or coauthored three books, Patent Law and Policy: Cases and Materials, Intellectual Property in the New Technological Age, and Legal Protection for Computer Technology. Recent articles include "As Many as Six Impossible Patents before Breakfast: Property Rights for Business Concepts and Patent System Reform," in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal (1999); "The Control of Strategic Alliances: An Empirical Analysis of Biotechnology Collaborations," in the Journal of Industrial Economics (1998); and "Intellectual Property and Digital Content: Notes on a Scorecard," in Rivista di Diritto Industriale (1998).
In addition to teaching and research projects, Merges also serves as a special consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, and is a member of the Department's Task Force on Intellectual Property.
Edwin H. Taylor - Edwin Taylor is a partner at Blakely, Sokoloff, Taylor & Zafman. His practice centers around patents and IP related business transactions. His areas of specialization are electronics, internet technology, and computer-related technologies.
The Supreme Court and the Federal Court: How The Changes To Patent Law Will Affect Patent Practice with panelists Robert P. Merges, Edwin H. Taylor, Elizabeth A. Howard and Thomas E. Kuhnle. Robert Barr moderates.
The Supreme Court has shown more interest in patent cases than in the past forty years. The panel discusses the recent wave of Supreme Court patent cases (MedImmune v. Genentech; eBay v. MercExchange; Microsoft v. ATT; KSR v. Teleflex) and the impact of the Supreme Court's renewed oversight on future Federal Circuit jurisprudence in areas such as willfulness, review of claim construction and statutory subject matter. They also discuss the effect of these cases on patent litigation, patent licensing and patent prosecution.