Breakfast on your own

Details: “Ex Parte Reexamination” Presentation
Speakers: Lissi Mojica, Jon Hobbs, Kirby Drake, Jason Eisenburg

This workshop provides patent practitioners, in-house counsel, and IP professionals with a comprehensive, practice-ready understanding of ex parte reexamination proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Sessions progress from foundational policy through advanced litigation strategy, with particular attention to the growing strategic importance of reexamination in an environment of heightened IPR discretionary denials.

Details: Exhibitors Open

Details: Conference Begins

Details: Standards Essential Patents (SEP) 101
Speakers: David Brennan

An introduction to standards essential patents including topics about what they are, how they’re used, and why they’re different than other types of patents.

Details: In Re Blue Buffalo and Functional Language Murkiness
Speakers: Jennifer Bales, Mike Locklar

Recent guidance on functional language such as “configured to” has been unsettled and contradictory. Interpretation of specific phrases in claims has changed over time and In Re Blue Buffalo only makes it murkier. How do you draft your patent application and your claims to succeed first in the patent office and later in the courts? Choosing or avoiding specific language may work for now but miss in the future. Strategies include specific and detailed drawings and descriptions of the invention, using multiple claim structures, and claim differentiation.

Details: Break

Details: Patenting from In-House:  Getting Patents with Jury Appeal
Speakers: Greg Kavounas

A company should care that its patents will be, if eventually necessary, litigated as successfully as possible. To improve on this company objective, when an in-house patent practitioner procures patents, whether by themselves or through outside practitioners, they could further take additional measures to orient their company’s patents, so they have jury appeal. Such additional measures include techniques that range from reducing unnecessary cognitive load to jurors to engaging their higher human functions.

Details: Break

Details: All Things 101
Speaker: Sarah Foley, Justin Krieger

What conduct amounts to an offer for sale triggering the on sale bar? Join Justin in a discussion on recent developments regarding the on-sale bar with takeaways on how to minimize the risk that commercial activity that triggers it. Also learn about the Metallizing Engineering “forfeiture doctrine” and recent case law seeking to overturn this long-standing principle.

Details: Patent Practice Essentials in Austrailia, New Zealand and South East Asia
Speaker: John Landells

John’s presentation will focus on essentials and what a US practitioner needs to know about patent practice in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. The presentation will also highlight key differences and similarities in practice between the United States, Europe and that of Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.

Details: Cocktail Reception at Seattle University College of Law

Details: Pacific Northwest Patent Dinner

Breakfast on your own

Details: Using Petitions to Keep from Getting Stuck
Speakers: David Boundy

Petitions are a useful tool to keep an application from getting stuck. When is an issue appealable, when is it petitionable? Where is the leverage to steer an application to a favorable conclusion?

Details: Patents and Congress
Speaker: Peter-Anthony Pappas

Details Coming Soon…

Details: Break

Details: Unicorn Patents: The Power Law Curve of Patent Valuation
Speakers: Kip Werking

Patent valuation follows a power law curve where a small minority of patents provide a disproportionate amount of the returns. We explore various fascinating implications of this phenomena, including flexibility in handling prosecution mistakes, the mysteries of patent valuation, and the outsize benefits from small improvements to drafting processes.

Details: Lunch

Details: NAPP Annual Meeting

Details: Break

Details: Professional Responsibility and Practice Before the USPTO
Speaker: Dahlia Girgis

The presentation will cover the common ethical violations OED encounters for patent and TM practitioners who appear before the USPTO. The materials will also include several disciplinary decisions to provide context to several of the USPTO Rules of Professional Conduct.

Details: What a Difference a Year Makes: Changing Examiner Metrics and Impact on Your Practice
Speaker: Lee Eubanks

With stated goals of improving efficiency and reducing the patent application backlog, the USPTO recently made significant changes to internal metrics on how examiners are evaluated. We’ll review some of these changes, including changes in the Performance Appraisal Plan for examiners, and discuss how they impact the Office and our practices.

Details: TBD

Details: Break

Details: Strategies for Writing Winning Pre-Approval and Appeal Briefs
Speaker: Srini Chakravarthi

This session provides practical strategies for writing effective pre-appeal briefs and appeal briefs before the USPTO. Drawing on real-world examples and common pitfalls, it covers how to frame issues, structure arguments, and write persuasively for both examiner panels and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Details: Questel Presentation – LLM Hallucinations for Attorneys
Speaker: Brendan Lillis

LLM Hallucinations for Attorneys will present an overview of the basic mechanics of large language models, introduce the concept of retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and discuss why AI models hallucinate, provide example case studies and offer best practices for attorneys that use generative AI in their legal practice.

Details: Happy Hour & Reception at Seattle University

Details: Sunset Cruise Tour (must have reserved tickets in advance)

Breakfast on your own

Details: Examiner Typology: A Humorous Look at Some Types and Stereotypes
Speakers: Gary ONeill

A satirical examination, at least in part, of the types of examiners that may write back to you; including distinctive markers corresponding to each type, the improvement comprising: what to do when they do.

Details: Updated Prosecution Strategies for a Rapidly Changing Patent Office
Speaker: Tom Cecil

The last 18 months have seen dramatic changes at the patent office, sometimes with strategic implications for patent prosecution. This presentation looks at some of the bigger changes and what practitioners can do to provide value to clients in light of those changes.

Details: Break

Details: AI & Patents & Ethics
Speakers: Tammy Pennington Rhodes

This presentation will provide practitioners with practical guidance regarding practice before the USPTO with respect to the use of Artificial Intelligence and Ethics. Practitioners will learn how to avoid common pitfalls as well as maintaining client confidentiality, privilege and work product when using Artificial Intelligence in dealings with the USPTO.

Details: Effective Examiner Interviews
Spearker: Bruce Young

Best practices for conducting examiner interviews will be presented. Topics covered include when to conduct an interview, how to prepare for the interview, and how to engage with the examiner during the interview. Techniques for forming a partnership with the examiner to find allowable subject matter will be discussed as will recent changes to interview practice at the Office.

Details: Conference Concludes

Details: Group Lunch at Koko’s