PATENTS FOR POETS AND POLICY WONKS

April 19, 2005, Washington D.C.

AGENDA

Venue: Washington Plaza Hotel, 10 Thomas Circle NW

09.00: Introduction: Felix Cohen and Ed Mierzwinski, (TACD Steering Committee members)

09.15: Opening comments by US government and European Commission

Jens Gaster, DG Internal Market, European Commission

Paul Salmon, US Patent and Trademark Office

10.00: Josh Sarnoff – What is a patent?

10.15 - 11.00: Panel – What should be patented?
Moderator: Anna Fielder, Consumers International

Medicines - Sarah Lenz Lock, AARP

Life forms - Michael Hansen, Consumers Union

Methods of business and finance - Phil Evans, Which?

11.00 - 11.15: Coffee Break

11.15 - 12.30: What should be patented? (continued)
Moderator: Karel Pavlik, Czech consumer organisation SOS

Software - Cornelia Kutterer, BEUC (European Consumers Organisation)

Education and teaching - Manon Ress, Consumer Project on Technology

12.30 - 13.30: Lunch

13.30 - 15.00: Patents on standards - What is the reform agenda?
Moderator: Machiel van der Velde, Consumentenbond, Netherlands
Issues to discuss: ideas on patents and standards, ideas on essential interfaces.

Brian Kahin, University of Michigan

Michael R. Nelson, IBM

James Love, Consumer Project on Technology

15.00 - 15.15 Coffee Break

15.15 - 16.45: Five miscellaneous policy wonk questions
Moderator: Rhoda Karpatkin, President Emeritus of Consumers Union

Ramo Rao, World Intellectual Property Organisation

Mark Silbergeld, Consumer Federation of America

Brian Kahin, University of Michigan

Stephen Merrill, National Academy of Sciences

Michelle Childs, Consumer Project on Technology

1. What is patent quality, and why is bad patent quality important to consumers?
2. What type of research exceptions are needed?
3. Should governments formally recognize humanitarian exceptions to patent rights?
4. How much can patents differ by field of technology?
5. What is the future of patent harmonization?

16.45 - 17.00: Open discussion and next steps, chaired by Machiel van der Velde and James Love (co-chairs of TACD's IP Working Group)

TACD is very grateful to the Rockefeller Foundation and the Open Society Institute for its support for this meeting.