Practising Law Institute (PLI) will be holding its 2nd Annual Patent Law Institute on January 14-15, 2008 in New York, NY and on January 28-29, 2008 in San Francisco, CA.  A live webcast of the San Francisco session will also be available.  The two-day conference consists of six one-hour plenary sessions of broad interest to patent lawyers and a separate breakout track consisting of six one-hour sessions focusing on one of three patent practice sub-groups: patent prosecution; patent litigation; and patent transactions.  The plenary sessions will cover:

• Recent Supreme Court and Federal Circuit decisions and subsequent District Court applications of those decisions.
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rule changes.
• Strategic business use of patent portfolios in view of KSR and USPTO rule changes and other recent events.
• An international update on PCT trends and practices.
• A judges panel discussion of recent appellate decisions and the impact on pending litigation; resolution of discovery disputes and other motion practice issues; and the use of ADR.
• A corporate counsel panel discussion on patent business and legal concerns.

Breakout tracks will cover:

• Prosecution:
  • The impact of new USPTO rules initiatives;
  • USPTO biotech/pharma trends; and
  • A discussion of EFS-Web and USPTO Web forms.

• Litigation:
  • The impact of recent appellate decisions;
  • Litigation in the Eastern District of Texas;
  • Practical guidelines for e-discovery management; and
  • Industry spotlights on pharma/biotech, electronics/semiconductor, and software patent litigation.

• Transactions:
  • Drafting opinions of counsel in the wake of KSR and In re Seagate;
  • Critical business considerations of a license agreement;
  • The impact of MedImmune on licensing;
  • Eighteen hidden dangers in your patent license agreement; and
  • Patent valuation for litigation and licensing and patent auctions.

A program schedule and list of speakers for the New York Patent Law Institute can be found here, and a program schedule and list of speakers for the San Franscisco Patent Law Institute can be found here.

The registration fee for the conference is $1,495 (group discounts are available for groups of 4-14 members of the same organization).  Those interested in registering for the conference can do so at the PLI website.