IIT Chicago-Kent's sixth Supreme Court IP Review is September 25

The Honorable M. Margaret McKeown, a circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, will deliver the keynote address at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law's sixth annual Supreme Court Intellectual Property Review (SCIPR) on September 25. The one-day conference will be held at the law school, 565 West Adams Street (between Clinton and Jefferson streets) in Chicago. Judge McKeown will address the topic "Censorship in the Guise of Authorship: Harmonizing Copyright and the First Amendment."

"The Ninth Circuit, along with the Second Circuit, are widely considered to be the two most important circuits for copyright law, given the entertainment industry's location in those circuits and the number of copyright cases those courts decide," said Professor Edward Lee, director of the law school's Program in Intellectual Property Law. "We at Chicago-Kent feel extremely fortunate to have Judge McKeown deliver this year's keynote address."

"Judge McKeown is widely known and respected as an influential jurist, especially in the area of intellectual property law. Before she was appointed to the bench, she founded the IP practice at Perkins Coie LLP. As a judge on the Ninth Circuit, she has written numerous important IP decisions, including most recently the en banc decision in Garcia v. Google, which deals with the fundamental issue of authorship under copyright law."

IIT Chicago-Kent's Supreme Court IP Review is the only conference in the country focused exclusively on Supreme Court cases involving intellectual property law. The annual program draws leading members of the U.S. Supreme Court bar, intellectual property practice, academia, and the judiciary. Presenters include many of the nation's top Supreme Court advocates and amici curiae, plus leading intellectual property scholars from around the country.

Participants in this year's conference will review five intellectual property cases decided during the 2014–15 U.S. Supreme Court term. Attorney William Jay, a partner and co-chair of the appellate litigation practice at Goodman Procter LLP, argued and won two significant intellectual property cases on that docket—both by 7-2 decisions. Jay will participate in discussions of his cases: Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., a landmark patent case setting a new standard of review for claim construction, and B&B Hardware, Inc. v. Hargis Industries, Inc., an important decision on the intersection between agency decisions and IP litigation.

IIT Chicago-Kent Professor Christopher Schmidt, director of the Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States, will lead a preview of cases on the docket for the upcoming term and a discussion of certiorari petitions to watch. Professors Edward Lee and Daniel Katz will discuss how Supreme Court analytics are used to predict which side will win a case.

This conference is eligible for 4.25 hours of Illinois general MCLE credit and 5 hours of Pennsylvania general MCLE credit. General registration for the conference is $35; $15 for non-IIT Chicago-Kent academics; and free to IIT Chicago-Kent faculty and students and to students of other law schools. For more information or to register, please contact Patricia O'Neal at (312) 906-5128 or ipconference@kentlaw.iit.edu or visit the website: www.kentlaw.iit.edu/scipr.

Founded in 1888, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, a private, technology-focused, research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology, 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. In the most recent U.S. News & World Report graduate school rankings, IIT Chicago-Kent's Program in Intellectual Property Law is ranked seventh in the nation.