By Christopher P. Singer —

Professor Douglas Lichtman (at right) from the UCLA School of Law contacted Patent Docs to let us know about a free audio podcast regarding the recent Federal Circuit decision in In re Bilski, which is available for download at the Intellectual Property Colloquium.  The one hour program includes commentary on the basis and potential impact of the Court's decision from Professor Lichtman, as well as law Professor Robert Merges of Boalt Hall at U.C. Berkeley and Professor John Duffy of The George Washington University Law School.  The program also provides CLE credit for attorneys in New York and California, and may soon receive CLE credit approval in Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Delaware, and the state of Washington.  More information regarding CLE credit is available from the IP Colloquium website.

The Professors walk through the background and facts of the Bilski case, analyze the motivation and basis for the Court's decision, and discuss the impact of the holding on various industries and existing patents, as well as how pending and future patent applications may be shaped by the decision.  The well-reasoned program provides particularly useful insight as both Professors Merges (at left) and Duffy (below) were involved in the case, with Professor Duffy presenting a portion of the oral argument before the Court.

The Bilski podcast is one in an on-going series of intellectual property podcasts available from IP Colloquium that include commentary from senior academic and industry guests.  The IP Colloquium website provides an archive of all the previous podcasts as well as a list of upcoming programs, all of which are free to download, and come with CLE credit.  This series of IP-related podcasts certainly provides the intellectual property community with a valuable free resource for current issues in intellectual property law.