Two updates on IDSA involving design patent issues:
On April 19, 2016, IDSA Executive Director Daniel Martinage, CAE, and IDSA Board of Directors Chair Emeritus Austen Angell, FIDSA, will take the stage before a capacity crowd at the 10th annual United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Design Day in Alexandria, VA. (Follow live tweets on @IDSA and @USPTO on Twitter.)
They’ll address “What’s Trending in Design” by discussing IDSA’s major programs and initiatives, and showcasing former winning products from IDSA’s International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA)—as the prestigious competition goes into its 36th year. Also at Design Day, more than a dozen speakers are expected to take on headline-making issues, such as key design patent decisions.
On that subject, on April 8, 2016, IDSA partnered with the University of Pennsylvania’s Law School and the Ivy League institution’s Integrated Product Design Program to co-sponsor an invitation-only, roundtable discussion on design patent law. The exchange examined “the identification and clarification of the conflicts that exist in the current state of the legal art relating to design patents.”
On hand: Peter Bressler, FIDSA, adjunct associate professor at Penn’s Integrated Product Design Program, co-chair of IDSA’s Design Protection Special Interest Section and founder, Bresslergroup; Professor R. Polk Wagner of Penn Law School; IDSA Executive Director Daniel Martinage, CAE; and other designers; IDSA members and Fellows; attorneys; practitioners; and scholars.
More roundtable discussions could be held in the summer and fall.