2019 Sedona Conference on Global Aspects of Patent Litigation

Director Robert Greene Sterne will be a moderator at the 2019 Sedona Conference on Global Aspects of Patent Litigation. His panel, “Post-Grant Administrative Invalidity Proceedings Across Different Jurisdictions,” will take place on November 19 from 1:45 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The conference will continue the in-depth dialogue from the 2017 Conference on Patent Litigation: Global Strategies for Managing Both Multifront Domestic and International Litigation of IP Assets and the 2018 Conference on International Patent Litigation: Aspirations Toward Attaining Effective Global IP Protection, and also from The Sedona Conference’s extensive Working Group 9 and 10 (patent litigation) commentary drafting team efforts over the past five+ years which have been focused on the U.S. patent litigation space and are now expanding to a global perspective.

As markets and technologies grow increasingly interconnected around the world, patent litigants, both owners and defendants, are re-orienting their litigation strategies to reflect global realities. At the same time, changes in the legal landscape, in the U.S., Europe and Asia, are giving rise to both new risks of and new opportunities for patent litigation. Rapidly evolving case law, new guidelines from national competition authorities and other institutions, and legislative initiatives constantly shape and re-shape the ever more complex framework for both plaintiffs and defendants.

The conference co-chairs and a distinguished faculty of judges, government officials, and counsel from around the world will lead the dialogue on topics identifying and explaining the wide range of issues arising in international patent litigation, and comparative approaches across different international patent jurisdictions.

Panel Description:

The international legal mechanisms to invalidate patents continue to expand. While some countries require all validity challenges to be conducted in ordinary civil courts, most countries now have available a variety of administrative procedures or specialized tribunals to address patent validity. These administrative proceedings can have a profound impact on not only patent validity but on the way proceedings flow and are managed in the civil courts. In some systems, such as the U.S.A., patent validity can be challenged administratively within the Patent Office in an inter partes review, post-grant review, or ex parte reexamination proceeding. Europe offers not only a wide variety of countries and legal systems but there is the concurrent opportunity to be involved in an EPO opposition proceeding. Thus, administrative and specialized tribunal invalidity challenges can take many forms, and the strategy taken during administrative proceedings can be dependent on the options and timing of the civil courts. The variety of non-judicial proceedings can occur in many jurisdictions and each offers its own set of advantages.