ALEXANDRIA, Va.— FTC, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will hold a joint public workshop May 26 on the intersection of patent policy and competition policy and its implications for promoting innovation. Assistant Attorney General for the department’s Antitrust Division Christine Varney, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David J. Kappos, and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra will give opening remarks at the morning session of the workshop. FTC Commissioner Edith Ramirez will open the afternoon session. The workshop will be held at USPTO’s campus in Alexandria, Va.
The first morning panel of experts will examine how challenges posed by the patent backlog affect the competitive strategies of patent applicants and innovators. The second morning panel will examine the impact of the Supreme Court’s 2006 opinion in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange L.L.C. on permanent injunctions for patent infringement in district courts and at the U.S. International Trade Commission. The afternoon panel will evaluate the role of patents in connection with industry standards and the impact such standards have on competition. The workshop will conclude with reflections on the panel discussions by the chief economists of the department’s Antitrust Division, FTC and USPTO.
