RALEIGH, N.C. – Campbell Law School hosted the White House Business Council, Business Forward, and Coats & Bennett, PLLC for a discussion on patents and the economy and AIA implementation with officials from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Thursday, June 21. Area business leaders, intellectual property (IP) attorneys, and other invited distinguished guests listened to Dr. Stuart Graham, chief economist, USPTO, who offered an in-depth discussion of the significant impact the patent system and economy have on one another, and highlighted the relationship between innovation through new patents and improvements in the economy. Dr. Graham was followed by Janet Gongola, AIA implementation coordinator, USPTO, who addressed details of the America Invents Act, a major reform to the Patent Act signed by President Obama in 2011.
Dr. Stuart Graham (chief economist, USPTO), Janet Gongola (AIA implementation coordinator, USPTO) and Campbell Law Professor Lucas Osborn
“We were honored to host two distinguished USPTO employees, Dr. Stuart Graham and Janet Gongola,” said Campbell Law Professor Lucas Osborn. “Dr. Graham provided an engaging and insightful discussion of the improvements, research, and publications the USPTO is generating. Ms. Gongola gave a wonderfully organized and concise explanation of the important features of the America Invents Act. The USPTO continues to impress me with the way it engages the public to improve the patent system.”
Dr. Graham is serving as the first chief economist of the USPTO. His research focuses on the economics of the patent system, IP transactions, and the relationship of IP to entrepreneurship and the commercialization of new technologies. Gongola has been an associate solicitor in the Office of the Solicitor at the USPTO where she provided legal advice to agency officials and defended decisions of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit as well as district courts across the country.
Helping to organize the discussion was Coats & Bennett attorney and 1997 Campbell Law alum Anthony Biller, a full-time IP litigator. Biller represents clients in patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret litigation in courts throughout the United States. He also teaches IP litigation at Campbell Law as an adjunct faculty member.
Following this year’s State of the Union address, President Obama asked senior Administration officials to begin hosting discussions with local business leaders across the country. The purpose of these discussions is to listen to business leaders and receive feedback on how the Administration can best support economic growth. The presentation at Campbell Law resulted from such roundtable discussions between the Administration and local business leaders.
ABOUT CAMPBELL LAW:
Since its founding in 1976, the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University has developed lawyers who possess moral conviction, social compassion and professional competence, and who view the law as a calling to serve others. The school has been recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) as having the nation’s top Professionalism Program and by the American Academy of Trial Lawyers for having the nation’s best Trial Advocacy Program. Campbell Law boasts more than 3,200 alumni, including 2,200 who reside and work in North Carolina. For 25 years, Campbell Law’s overall record of success on the North Carolina Bar Exam has been unsurpassed by any other North Carolina law school. In September 2009, Campbell Law relocated to a state-of-the-art building in downtown Raleigh. For more information, visit http://law.campbell.edu.
LIKE US ON FACEBOOK:
http://www.facebook.com/campbelllawschool