IIT Chicago-Kent hosts PatCon3 April 12 & 13

The Honorable Richard Linn, judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, will deliver the keynote address at the third Patent Conference (PatCon3). Judge Linn will address the topic "The Changing Landscape of Patent Law: At the USPTO, the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit." The conference will be held April 12 and 13 at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, 565 West Adams Street (between Clinton and Jefferson streets), in Chicago. Judge Linn will speak at 9 a.m.

PatCon3 is a cooperative effort among IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, the University of Kansas School of Law, University of San Diego School of Law, and Boston College Law School to hold an annual conference where patent scholars in law, economics, management science, and other disciplines can share their research. It was founded in 2010 by professors David Olson, David Schwartz, Ted Sichelman and Andrew Torrance, of the four cooperating law schools, who realized that the growth and importance of research in the area of patents required an exclusive forum that would enable participants to share their research with other experts and explore links across the legal and business sides of patents. The first conference was held in 2011 at the University of Kansas School of Law; the second was hosted at Boston College Law School last year.

"We are excited to host PatCon this year," said Professor David L. Schwartz, co-director of IIT Chicago-Kent's Center for Empirical Studies of Intellectual Property. "Chicago-Kent has a long tradition as a leader in the study of patent law. In addition, the Chicago IP community is extremely strong. The Patent Conference provides a rare yet important opportunity to bring together experienced law firm and in-house practitioners, judges and academics to discuss salient issues in patent law."

Friday's sessions also include:

• a debate on the patent system between the Honorable Richard Posner, judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and Professor Richard Epstein of New York University School of Law and University of Chicago Law School;
• a plenary session featuring U.S. Patent and Trademark Office chief economist Alan Marco, Stanford Law School professor Mark Lemley, and Penn Law professor David Abrams; and
• an industry panel with representatives from BPAmerica, AbbVie, Bridgestone Americas, and RR Donnelley.

Saturday's programming, which is for academics only, includes both plenary and concurrent paper presentation sessions. The plenary panels will allow scholars to present current, well-developed work, while the concurrent sessions will be appropriate for less-developed drafts and works in progress.

Registration is required and the program may be eligible for MCLE credit. Full conference details and online registration are available at www.kentlaw.iit.edu/patcon.

The program is co-sponsored by IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, Cozen O'Connor, and Niro, Haller & Niro, Ltd.

Founded in 1888, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is celebrating "125 years of distinctive legal education." IIT Chicago-Kent is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in engineering, psychology, architecture, business, design and law.

IIT Chicago-Kent currently offers a J.D. certificate program in intellectual property law and in 2002 became the first American law school to offer a one-year LL.M. degree in international intellectual property law.