Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery welcomes you to a Free Webinar presented by Selena M. Spritz and Steven G. Parmelee.

You may be aware that recent case decisions have spurred the filing of well over one hundred false patent marking qui tam lawsuits in the past couple of months. The risks are very real.

This webinar will explain the qui tam false marking process, the holdings and dicta of relevant false marking decisions, and the basics of what to do to avoid false marking while retaining the constructive notice benefits of patent marking (without a doubt, the devil is in the details). This will include a discussion of the measure of damages, the risks of using grammatically correct but potentially culpable notice language, and various defenses that have been previously raised or that are presently being considered.

False marking represents a relatively fast-moving area of concern. To reflect a most-current view, this webinar will reflect upon and consider recent oral arguments in the appeal of the Solo Cup decision to the CAFC and also takes note of suggested legislative reactions as reported from Congress.

This presentation will also delve into some highly related side issues, such as the possibility of using a false marking qui tam action to force an explanation, within a judicial context, of a patentee's interpretation of their claims.

Ms. Spritz is an attorney in the firm’s Trademark Group. Mr. Parmelee is a highly experienced patent practitioner and frequent speaker on current IP topics. This webinar includes a white paper handout that explores in considerable depth these same points of interest.

This program is FREE.

State Bar of California and State Bar of Illinois participatory MCLE available.

To register go to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/243998096

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery welcomes you to a Free Webinar presented by Rudy Kratz and Gill Smaggasgale.

New and amended rules will go into effect in the European Patent Office on April 1, 2010. These rules will impose significant new requirements and will require changes in the way in which applicants and practitioners prosecute EPO patent applications. The new rules will address a number of different areas, including the timing of filing divisional applications, searching of multiple independent claims, mandatory responses to European search reports, mandatory responses to PCT written opinions, and the manner and timing of voluntary amendments.

This webinar will summarize the changes in the rules. It will also address the effect of the new rules on U.S. applicants and practitioners and will provide some approaches for dealing with the changes.

Rudy is a registered patent attorney and assists clients with U.S. patent preparation and prosecution in the mechanical and electrical fields. He also supervises much of the international patent filing at Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery and works with associates worldwide in seeking patent protection before the EPO and other patent offices. In addition to U.S. and international patent prosecution, Rudy assists clients with IP procurement and counseling matters, licensing, litigation, and opinions.

Gill Smaggasgale is a European Patent Attorney with the firm of W. P. Thompson & Co. Gill has substantial experience of representing a range of clients from SMEs to major corporations before the EPO in the filing and prosecution of applications and is able to tailor strategy for the differing needs of these clients. She routinely represents clients in oppositions whether as patentee or opponent and has substantial experience before the Boards of Appeal.

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Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery welcomes you to a Free Webinar presented by Steven G. Parmelee.

Have you heard? “Free” software is out there: hundreds of thousands of programs of every genre, stripe, and functionality, often vetted and formally or informally supported. If your business writes code, or if you have others write code for you, the chances are good that your code writers have been tempted to incorporate an existing, well-behaved, and cost-free program into your product offering.

As always, there is no free lunch. Using such software often imposes a number of responsibilities on the user. These responsibilities range from the merely ministerial (such as including authorship attribution in your distributed code) to the substantive (such as agreeing to similarly provide free access to your resultant code to others) to the catastrophic (such as discovering that your proprietary secret code is no longer either proprietary nor secret).

This webinar delves into the history of “free” software and pays particular attention to the 800 pound gorilla in the room – GPL v2 and v3. “Open source” and “copyleft” principles and their corresponding usage ramifications are explained and the increasing amount of litigation in this arena both noted by example and placed into context. Numerous real-world examples are provided and the real-world impact of these experiences exemplified in new due-diligence issues and concerns.

Our speaker, Fitch Even partner Steven G. Parmelee, is a highly experienced patent practitioner and frequent speaker on current IP topics.

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Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery welcomes you to a Free Webinar presented by Steven G. Parmelee.

Much has been written about the use of the Supreme Court’s KSR decision as a sword to apply against the allowability of a patent application or the validity of an issued patent. For the prosecuting patent attorney, however, not all the news is bleak. The KSR decision is built upon a circumstance that in fact renders it subject to avoidance in many prosecution settings. Beyond this, KSR’s admonitions can actually be helpful to the prosecuting patent attorney in some settings to establish (rather than refute) nonobviousness.

This webinar, entitled KSR to the Rescue, presents a prosecuting attorney’s guide to living (and sometimes prospering) with KSR. The presentation includes a deep dive into KSR’s loophole as well as practical and field-tested approaches to using this holding to your advantage.

Our speaker, Fitch Even partner Steven G. Parmelee, is a highly experienced patent practitioner and frequent speaker on current IP topics.

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Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery welcomes you to a Free Webinar presented by James P. Krueger and Richard A. Kaba. This webinar will discuss patent prosecution strategies in chemical and biotechnology patent applications.

Dr. Krueger practices intellectual property law with expertise in business strategy, patentability, preparing and prosecuting patent applications in the U.S. and abroad, infringement and validity analysis, licensing, and confidentiality and collaborative research agreements. Dr. Krueger focuses on intellectual property as it pertains to emerging technologies with a technical emphasis in the areas of chemistry and biotechnology. Dr. Krueger joined the firm in May of 1990. He is a registered U.S. Patent and Trademark attorney.

Dr. Kaba is a partner in the firm and focuses primarily in the areas of patent prosecution and strategy. He has been working with a number of clients in chemical, medical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology areas on matters such as cell lines, enzymes, proteins, interferon, immunology, neuroscience and cancer, medical devices, environmental applications, injection molding, laser ablation and chemical vapor deposition techniques, plastic and polymer chemistry. Dr. Kaba has authored or co-authored over fifteen scientific and legal publications. He has also given numerous seminars across the country concerning patent practice, especially with regard to biotechnology.

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Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery welcomes you to a Free Webinar presented by Steven G. Parmelee.

Whether you have been heavily involved in pursuing (or defending against) so-called business method patents or not, you likely know that the CAFC’s decision in In re Bilski upset a lot of apple carts in these regards. Given the corresponding uncertainty, it is good that the Supreme Court has agreed to consider the decision and hopefully bring some certainty again to this area of practice.

Meanwhile, however, inventors continue to invent and patent attorneys (must) continue to prepare and file and prosecute corresponding patent applications. What, exactly, are we all to do when the apples have been spilled to the ground and the Supreme Court has not yet picked them up to show us where they all belong?

At a minimum, we need to be aware of the Patent Office’s “New Interim Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Examination Instructions” which were released on August 24, 2009. The “Interim” in that heading refers to the fact that patent examiners are to use these guidelines “pending a final decision from the Supreme Court in Bilski v. Kappos." We are pleased to announce that this webinar will provide a thorough review of these interim guidelines and will also provide contextual information to facilitate a better understanding of that for which these guidelines may really be looking.

Our speaker, Fitch Even partner Steven G. Parmelee, is a highly experienced patent practitioner who will also offer some practical tips on preparing and arguing your patent applications with these various 101 issues in their present state of flux.

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Fitch, Even, Tabin and Flannery welcomes you to a presentation by Ted Izen, Ph.D.

The discussion will focus on the use of intellectual property from a business perspective. It will provide some practical guidelines for developing, maintaining and extracting the maximum value from your intellectual assets. What is a trade secret and when do you want to turn it into a patent? What are the various types of patents, and who must be involved in the application? What is the process that you go through, how long does it take, and how much does it cost? What does “patent pending” really mean? When do you want to file for international patents, and what are the financial trade-offs? Once the patent is awarded, what can you do with it; what are the pros and cons of licensing (exclusive, non-exclusive, fields-of-use, etc.) or even selling it to another company? What about infringement of your patent or when your products infringe other patents? What resources are available to you to assist you in making these decisions?

Dr. Ted Izen holds a Ph.D. in Physics, and has extensive executive and general management experience in high technology industries. He formerly served as President of the intellectual property licensing organization within Rockwell International, with primary emphasis on extracting value from over 2000 US patents. Prior to this he was the Vice President of Business Development for a $1B Division of the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Dr. Izen is currently a consultant for a number of Fortune 500 companies related to intellectual property strategy, licensing, business development, and management. He works with clients to establish joint ventures or strategic alliances, and assists them in licensing or selling their patents, or in finding new patents to acquire. He has extensive experience in international business development, strategic partnering, licensing, and intellectual property management.

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Fitch, Even, Tabin and Flannery welcomes you to a Free Webinar presented by panelists Kevin DeBre and Scott Galer of Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP, and Ed Gray of Fitch, Even, Tabin and Flannery.

This Webinar will address the sale or disposal of intellectual property (I.P.) by economically-troubled businesses. Also addressed will be the I.P. issues and transactional considerations faced by the buyers of these assets. Included will be a discussion of the I.P. due diligence and licensing-related issues that arise in a troubled financial environment. The panel is comprised of attorneys who have extensive I.P. experience and mergers and acquisition (M & A) experience, and who will provide practical guidance.

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June McIvor presents a program on Financing Your Company: Debt or Equity?

In today’s climate, it’s not easy to find financing for your company’s needs. This webinar will address the trade-offs between debt and equity financing with some insights into the current markets for each.

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It takes 10’s of 1,000’s of hours to build and run a business. It can be dismantled in just hours without a solid plan.

This workshop is for start up, growth or a business owner thinking to sell.

You will learn:

64% of millionaires in the US are business owners. 19% own Professional Corporations, i.e. Attorneys, Dentists, Doctors, Engineers, Architects, etc. It is estimated their business comprises between 65 to 90% of an owner's assets. Financial security depends on converting that asset to cash. We want you and the people you care about to protect the wealth you have built or are in the process of building.

Your Presenters:

Born in Windsor, Great Britain Annie Shanks has lived in San Luis Obispo County for 22 years. Her working life began in Britain’s equivalent to the IRS.

With more than 19 years experience in the financial services industry, Annie Shanks offers comprehensive, holistic insurance & investment planning to employers and their employees. What that means is Annie invests the time to look at a client’s economy from “30,000 feet above” in order to position them to take advantage of every opportunity available, while reducing risk. The real benefit is knowing her client’s best interests are served and the people they care most about are protected.

Adi Ringer has been in the financial services industry since 1990. Through his work with high net worth individuals and business owners, he realized that there was a high correlation between their business exit objectives, retirement plans and estate planning goals.

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Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery welcomes you to a Free Webinar presented by Nancy W. Vensko and Steven M. Ferguson. This webinar will discuss commercializing discoveries made at research organizations, particularly with a view to the in re Kubin case, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, decided April 3, 2009. Here, the existence of a general method of isolating DNA molecules was held to be relevant to the question whether the DNA molecules themselves would have been obvious under § 103 of the patent act. How might this effect research commercialization and technology transfer?

Ms. Vensko is a registered patent attorney and a member of the San Luis Obispo office of Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery, headquartered in Chicago. She specializes in the preparation of patents and their prosecution in the U.S. and internationally concerning the technical area of biotechnology. More information about Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery and Ms. Vensko can be found at www.fitcheven.com

Steven M. Ferguson currently serves as the Deputy Director, Licensing and Entrepreneurship, Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Prior to joining NIH Office of Technology Transfer in 1990, Mr. Ferguson served in various positions in biomedical firms subsequent to being a scientist at the National Cancer Institute. Registered to practice before the USPTO, Mr. Ferguson also holds Master's Degrees in Business Administration and Chemistry as well as a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry. More information about technology transfer at NIH can be found at www.ott.nih.gov

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Herb Stroh presents a program on Planning for the Death of the Sole Practitioner.

Sole practitioner lawyers, physicians, CPAs, and other professionals have at least one thing in common: they own a very unique asset in the form of their solo practice. This program discusses estate planning to preserve the value of that asset and ease problems of administration resulting from the death of the solo professional.

Herb is a Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. He received his J.D. degree from Loyola Law School and LLM in tax from the University of San Diego School of Law. Herb was a partner in the law firm of Whitesell & Stroh in Glendale until relocating to the Central Coast. He became a partner at SJLM in July of 2007. Herb has lectured on various estate planning topics for CEB, The Estate Planning Counsel, Planned Giving Counsel, and the Glendale Bar. He recently published an article in the California Trusts and Estates Quarterly on administration issues faced by sole practitioner attorneys entitled “Practice Makes Perfect: Practical Issues for the Practice Administrator.

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Timothy Maloney and Steven Freeland of Fitch, Even, Tabin and Flannery welcome you to a presentation on Opinion Letters in light Broadcom v. Qualcomm.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Broadcom v. Qualcomm has further defined the relevance of patent non-infringement Opinion Letters from Counsel, particularly with regard to induced infringement. This decision and other recent decisions have additionally clarified the effects of waiving attorney-client privilege when asserting an Opinion of Counsel defense. The subject presentation will summarize some of these recent decisions relative to Opinion Letters and the level of waiver of attorney-client privilege that can be expected upon asserting an Opinion of Counsel defense.

Mr. Maloney is a partner of Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery and is a registered patent attorney. His practice entails all aspects of intellectual property strategy, management, and enforcement, with particular focus on patent litigation, infringement and validity opinions, IP risk management, technology transfer and licensing.

Mr. Freeland is also a partner of Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery and is a registered patent attorney. Steve's practice focuses on the development, protection, management and enforcement of various intellectual property rights, including patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and copyrights.

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As a part of our ongoing efforts to bring timely and informative programs to the business community, Sinsheimer Juhnke Lebens & McIvor, LLP has teamed with Mission Community Bank, Mission Community Services, and the SBA to bring to you a free webinar program outlining some of the changes to the SBA program, including 7A and 504 programs, as well as the new guarantee limit increases, and other topics.

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