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Understanding the intricacies of international intellectual property protections can be a difficult process because of the conflicts between the multitude of laws. Many countries provide their own specific protections and there are a number of multi-national agreements with varying participants and restrictions. In this program, attorneys L. Donald Prutzman, Pierre R. Yanney, Andrew Berger and Dianne Cahill discuss the details attorneys should know about protecting U.S. intellectual property interests abroad. Mr. Prutzman teaches the history of the efforts to establish international trademark standards, the theories of international protection, and compares the advantages and disadvantages of the many international agreements, including the Paris Convention, the Madrid Protocol and the Pan American Convention. Following that, Mr. Yanney explains the ins and outs of foreign patent prosecutions, including the significance of filing a PCT, how to claim priority, the advantages of using ISA/EP, and the different patent practices in Europe, Canada, China, and Japan.  Mr. Berger then shares how foreign copyrights are protected in this country and the overlapping rules with international protection, specifically he reviews the applicable treaties and provides helpful examples of international infringement cases, including the recent arguments in Golan v. Holder in front of the Supreme Court.  Dianne K. Cahill, Director of Legal Affairs at American Express concludes the program with an interesting discussion on the challenges to registering marks abroad from the client's perspective, specifically in countries that use different alphabets.
 

Agenda:
I.          International Trademark Protection
II.         Foreign Patent Prosecution
III.        International Protection of Copyrights
IV.        Challenges to International Trademark Protection