Partners Roger Kuan and Jason Novak spoke at the Good Food Institute’s monthly virtual meeting called GFIdeas to give everyone a crash course on intellectual property portfolio management—vital knowledge for any new startup.

Their presentation started with a high-level IP 101 overview and then dug deeper into the nuances of the plant-based and clean meat industries. Key takeaways included:

• A company’s IP mix depends heavily on its business strategy
• Plant-based and clean meat companies will likely seek out patents on specific unique aspects of their process
• We can learn a lot from other industries

Read more on their presentation.

Robert J. Cordy, Rappaport Distinguished Visiting Professor and Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (retired), spoke about challenges to constitutional democracy at the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy.

For more information, please click here.

Damon Lyon will speak on the panel entitled, “Foreign Tax Credit & Subpart F Developments and Planning” at PLI’s International Tax Issues 2018.

Topics Include:

• GILTI (Section 951A)
• Foreign tax credits under TCJA: Section 902 repeal, new Section 960, and the new Section 904 baskets
• Changes to the expense apportionment rules
• Continued existence of Section 956 – pitfalls and planning
• IRS regulations update

Partner Nicholas Holland will be Chair and speaker at a Private Client “Summer School” held at Downing College, Cambridge University. This all-inclusive residential event is led by the top private client minds and designed to impart the practical knowledge and ability needed to succeed in the Private Client sector.

For more information, please click here.

The Symposium is one of the largest gatherings of credentialed benefits professionals in the country. Attendees represent corporations, consulting firms, health care organizations, hospitals, banks, insurance companies, investment and administration firms, jointly trusteed and public employee benefit plans, law firms and other organizations involved with employee benefits.

Todd Solomon will present “401(k) Lawsuits on the Rise: Best Practices for Plan Fiduciaries.”

It is no secret that 401(k) plan lawsuits alleging breach of fiduciary duty are on the rise and can lead to significant settlements, legal costs and bad publicity. Plan sponsors and fiduciaries need to be educated about the legal risks and the best practices they can take to protect the plan and its fiduciaries from such challenges. This session will discuss strategies fiduciaries can take, including reducing or eliminating revenue-sharing arrangements, getting the most favorable share class for investment funds offered under the plan, charging only reasonable administrative expenses to plan participants in an appropriate manner, engaging qualified outside advisors, and meeting regularly to diligently review the plan and its investment and fee structure.

Takeaways:

• Best practices for managing a 401(k) investment committee, including practical case studies and sample committee materials
• Nature of the allegations against 401(k) plan committees and how to insulate against such challenges
• Unique challenges of managing a plan that offers company stock, including pros and cons of engaging an independent fiduciary to manage such a fund

Partner Kristin Connarn will speak at the 256^th American Chemical Society National Meeting, hosted in Boston on August 20, 2018.

Kristin will discuss ‘Extensions to Patent Term in the US & Worldwide’, and PTE’s valuable benefit to developers of patented small molecule pharmaceutical products that exists within the Hatch Waxman framework. Nevertheless, the PTE statute, 35 U.S.C. § 156, embodies limitations that are quite stringent and mean that most patent holders need to strategize carefully in order to maximize the potential extension to term that can be afforded. Although there has been only a small amount of litigation to test the language of 35 U.S.C. § 156, the cases that have been decided have had an important impact on defining the scope of the extension.

Roger Kuan will present “Advanced Patent Prosecution Workshop 2018: Claim Drafting & Amendment Writing” at the 2018 PLI on August 16-17, 2018 in San Francisco, California.

This advanced program is designed for corporate and other in-house practitioners or outside counsel with patent experience who wish to improve their patent preparation and prosecution skills including drafting the specification and claims for US and foreign patent applications, conducting examiner interviews, and drafting effective Office Action responses. By way of homework and classroom sample problems and solutions, attendees will have the opportunity to concentrate for two days on the specialized skills required in their technological area by receiving individualized feedback and guidance from experienced patent prosecutors. Discussions will include practical techniques for avoiding prosecution pitfalls and working with the US Patent and Trademark Office to get your client’s patent applications allowed. In addition, faculty will provide counsel on the implementation by the USPTO of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, including post-grant review proceedings such as inter partes reviews. Furthermore, the practical impact of significant Supreme Court and Federal Circuit decisions, e.g., Myriad, Mayo, Alice, and KSR, will be explained. Lastly, the program also includes Intellectual Property specific ethics CLE.

Steffen is a (selected) member of AmCham Germany NextGen. He participated in the August 11 – 15 conference which was designed to highlight different aspects of the transatlantic relationship, to offer different formats of exchange, and to make sure that there are plenty of networking opportunities for all AmCham Germany NextGen participants (about 35 pre-selected young and promising individuals/leaders).

Stephen Kranz is speaking at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) SALT 2018 Legislative Summit in Los Angeles, CA, regarding state tax reform following on federal reform and next steps on the remote sales tax. He will present an overview of the South Dakota v. Wayfair Supreme Court oral arguments and decision.