This Week in Washington IP: Oversight of the U.S. Copyright Office, Public/Private Collaboration for Quantum Computing Innovation, and Technology for Reducing Food Waste
This week in Washington IP news, the Senate IP Subcommittee hosts a hearing Wednesday afternoon to provide oversight of the U.S. Copyright Office, focusing on modernization efforts and technology updates. Elsewhere, the Center for Strategic & International Studies hosts events on encouraging public and private collaboration for improving developments in quantum computing technology, as well as technological developments in the agricultural and food production industries that can mitigate waste that those industries create.
Tuesday, September 6
Center for Strategic & International Studies
At 3:00 PM on Tuesday, online video webinar.
Much like artificial intelligence, quantum computing has the capability to drive innovation across a wide degree of industrial sectors. However, the nascent stage of current quantum computing technologies continues to require a large amount of basic research, and some technology advocates have called for more involvement from the private sector to speed the pathway toward commercializing quantum tech. This event will feature a discussion with a panel including Dustin Moody, Mathematician and Lead of the Post-Quantum Cryptography Project, National Institute for Standards and Technology; Celia Merzbacher, Executive Director, Quantum Economic Development Consortium; Ben McCarty, Technology Research Senior Principal, Accenture; and moderated by James Andrew Lewis, Senior Vice President and Director, Strategic Technologies Program, CSIS.
Wednesday, September 7
Information Technology & Innovation Foundation
At 12:00 PM on Wednesday, online video webinar.
This February, the White House announced the launch of a new Buy Clean Task Force designed to leverage the purchasing power of the U.S. federal government to support manufacturing firms producing low-carbon goods. This event follows a few weeks after ITIF released a report authored by Board Member Dorothy Robyn into ways that federal procurement activities can catalyze investment into clean energy innovation and some of the pitfalls that may be met by the Buy Clean Task Force along the way. This event features keynote remarks by Andrew Mayock, Federal Chief Sustainability Officer, White House Council on Environmental Quality. Following those remarks will be a discussion with a panel including Jim Connaughton, CEO, Nautilus Data Technologies; Dorothy Robyn, ITIF Center for Clean Energy Innovation and Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy; Xavier de Sousa Briggs, Senior Fellow, Brookings Metro; and moderated by David M. Hart, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Clean Energy Innovation, ITIF.
Center for Strategic & International Studies
At 2:00 PM on Wednesday in CSIS Headquarters, 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036.
The next generation of warfighting capabilities will make heavy use of software and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that are able to improve the agility of forces in combat scenarios. Soon, the U.S. government will release a report on next-generation warfighting systems developed jointly by the Chief Technology Officer of the Central Intelligence Agency with a former Director of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint AI Center. This CSIS event in advance of that report will discuss concerns in ensuring that the DoD remains flexible enough to quickly adopt and scale up software technologies to maintain military dominance relative to foreign rivals. This event will feature a discussion with a panel including Nand Mulchandani, CTO, CIA; Lt. General (Ret.) John N.T. “Jack” Shanahan, Former Director, DoD Joint AI Center; and moderated by Gregory C. Allen, Director, AI Governance Project and Senior Fellow, Strategic Technologies Program, CSIS.
Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property
At 2:30 PM on Wednesday in 226 Dirksen Senate Office Building.
The U.S. Copyright Office has been focused on modernization efforts in recent years and just last month, the agency launched the Copyright Recordation System, the Office’s first public module within its new Enterprise Copyright System. Around the same time, the Copyright Office also issued the results of its deferred examination study to Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), informing Sen. Tillis that such a registration option was not likely to achieve cost reductions while also introducing uncertainties into the judicial process surrounding copyright infringement lawsuits. The Office has also been faced with the prospect of consolidating its activities with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, another proposal coming from the office of Sen. Tillis. The sole witness for this hearing will be Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and Director, U.S. Copyright Office.
Thursday, September 8
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
At 1:00 PM on Thursday, online video webinar.
Startups and independent inventors in the biotech and medtech industries face many pressures. Along with the need to obtain effective patent rights at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to protect their medical innovations, they also need to navigate the market approval processes at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in order to bring their new products to consumers. This workshop exploring regulatory processes at the USPTO and FDA, as well as tips for successfully engaging with both agencies, will feature speakers including Linda Horner, Administrative Patent Judge, Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), USPTO; Brandon Fetterolf, Acting Director, TC 1600 Biotechnology and Organic Chemistry, USPTO; Jonathan Teixeira Moffat, Director, TC 3700 Medical Devices and Processes, USPTO; Mary Till, Legal Advisor, Office of Patent Legal Administration, USPTO; Kevin Bugin, Ph.D., Deputy Director for Operations, Office of New Drugs, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA; Barbara Zimmerman, Deputy Director for Regulatory Programs, Office of Product Evaluation and Quality, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, FDA; Tom Cowan, Partner, Knobbe Martens; and Kimberly Miller, Partner, Knobbe Martens.
Center for Strategic & International Studies
At 2:00 PM on Thursday, online video webinar.
The global food production industry contributes an incredible amount of waste as about one-third of all food produced across the world is either lost or discarded. This situation both increases greenhouse gas emissions through agricultural systems that produce more food than is needed, and contributes to economic inequality for communities around the world that could have benefitted from food sources. This event, which explores the national-level commitments that should be made by foreign governments to address the challenges of food waste through innovation and technological development, features a discussion with a panel including Hans Tung, Managing Partner, GGV Partner; Emily Ma, Head, Food for Good, Google; Stefan Kalb, Co-Founder and CEO, Shelf Engine; Kai Robertson, Senior Corporate Sustainability Advisor, KOR Consulting; and moderated by Caitlin Welsh, Director, Global Food Security Program, CSIS.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
At 3:00 PM on Thursday, online video webinar.
While arts and crafts by artisans from the Native American, Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native communities are sought after by many consumers, many of these artisans are dealing with lower attendance at the trade shows that provide a great deal of their income. This workshop is designed to teach such artisans about how to reach consumers through e-commerce channels and how to effectively scale up an arts and crafts operation while managing business relationships and avoiding the escalation of legal problems. This workshop will also explore contractual agreements that many artisans encounter for exhibitions, galleries and consignments.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
At 8:00 PM on Thursday, online video webinar.
As the United States and China both represent the two largest consumer markets in the world, many trademark owners have explored ways to build a market presence in both countries while staying on the right side of legal developments in trademark law in either nation. This workshop will feature a discussion on China trademark law developments with a panel including Su Bingche, Expert, Legal Division, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA); and Wu Wei, Manager, Trademark Attorney, Trademark Department, Shanghai Patent & Trademark Law Office, LLC. A second panel discussing U.S. trademark law developments will include Jennifer Chicoski, Attorney Advisor, Office of Policy and International Affairs, USPTO; and Scott Woldow, Managing Partner, Smith, Gambrell and Russell, Washington D.C. Office.
Friday, September 9
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
At 2:00 PM on Friday, online video webinar.
This USPTO workshop will teach attendees about the various features of the agency’s Patent Public Search tool, which the USPTO recently announced will replace the agency’s various legacy IT systems for patent searches sometime this month. This workshop will discuss how to tag patent documents based on user-set criteria, how to annotate documents and how to restrict patent document results to passages including user-selected search words. This workshop features a presentation by Tom Turner, Librarian, Patent and Trademark Resource Center, USPTO