Public Workshops

Patent Assertion Entity Activities

Workshop Information

On December 10, 2012, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will hold a joint public workshop on patent assertion entity (PAE) behavior. The workshop will provide a forum for industry participants, academics, economists, lawyers, and other interested parties to discuss the evolution of economic and legal analyses of PAE behavior, including patent acquisitions and licensing activity. The workshop will consist of a series of panels examining, among other topics, PAE behavior, the economics of IP licensing, industry experiences with PAE behavior, economic and legal theories and empirical work concerning PAE activity, and the potential efficiencies and harms to innovation and competition that this activity may generate.

This page provides information on:

• Date and Location
• Workshop Agenda
• Public Comments
• Instructions for Submitting Comments
• Registration for the Workshop

Press release: Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission to Hold Workshop on Patent Assertion Entity Activities

For more information, contact the Antitrust Division’s Legal Policy Section at ATR.LPS-PAEPublicComments@usdoj.gov.

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Date and Location

Date:	Monday, December 10, 2012 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Location:	Federal Trade Commission Satellite Building and Conference Center 601 New Jersey Avenue NW Washington, DC 20001

Please see the workshop agenda below for detailed information on each panel and a schedule of the day’s activities. Directions to the FTC’s Conference Center are available at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/transportationguide.shtml.

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Workshop Agenda

December 10, 2012

9:00 a.m.	Opening Remarks: FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz
SESSION A: Framework
9:15 a.m.	Lecture 1: Introduction to PAE Activity Colleen Chien, Assistant Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law Presentation: Patent Assertion Entities
9:35 a.m.	Lecture 2: Introduction to PAE Licensing Carl Shapiro, Transamerica Professor of Business Strategy, University of California at Berkeley, Walter A. Haas School of Business Presentation: Patent Assertion Entities:Effective Monetizers, Tax on Innovation, or Both?
10:05 a.m.	Q&A with Professors Chien and Shapiro
10:20–10:30 a.m.	Break
10:30 a.m.	Panel 1: Realities of Licensing and Litigation Practices Cynthia Bright, Associate General Counsel, IP Litigation and Public Policy, Hewlett-Packard Scott Burt, Vice President & Chief Intellectual Property Counsel, Mosaid Technologies, Inc. John Desmarais, Partner, Desmarais LLP; Founder, Round Rock Research LLC Peter Detkin, Founder and Vice-Chairman, Intellectual Ventures Sarah Guichard, Vice President of Patent & Standards Strategy, Research In Motion (RIM) Paul Melin, Chief Intellectual Property Officer, Nokia Neal Rubin, Vice President Litigation, Cisco Systems Inc. Mary Stich, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Rackspace Hosting Mallun Yen, Executive Vice President, RPX Corporation
12:00–1:15 p.m.	Lunch
1:15 p.m.	Remarks Stuart Graham, Chief Economist, U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
SESSION B: Potential Efficiencies and Harms from PAE Activity: Effects on Competition and Innovation
1:45 p.m.	Academic Introduction to Potential Efficiencies from PAE Activity Timothy Simcoe, Assistant Professor of Strategy and Innovation, School of Management, Boston University Presentation: Patent Assertion Entities Potential Efficiencies Panel 1: Potential Efficiencies from PAE Activity Ron Epstein, CEO, Epicenter IP Group LLC Presentation: Patent Assertion Entities Workshop C. Graham Gerst, Partner, Global IP Law Group, LLC Anne Layne-Farrar, Vice President, Antitrust & Competition Economics Practice, Charles River Associates Adam Mossoff, George Mason University School of Law Academic Introduction to Potential Harms from PAE Activity Iain Cockburn, Richard C. Shipley Professor in the Strategy and Innovation Department, School of Management, Boston University Presentation: Patent Assertion Entities: Potential Costs Panel 2: Potential Harms from PAE Activity Brad Burnham, Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures Thomas Ewing, Principal Consultant, Avancept LLC Robin Feldman, Professor of Law, University of California Hastings College of the Law Michael Meurer, Professor of Law and Abraham and Lillian Benton Scholar, Boston University School of Law David Schwartz, Associate Professor of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law Panel 3: Industry Reaction
3:45–4:00 p.m.	Break
SESSION C: How Does Antitrust Apply to the Potential Efficiencies and Harms Generated by PAE Activity
4:00 p.m.	Academic Introduction Phillip Malone, Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Clinical Co-Director and Senior Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School
4:20 p.m.	Panel Discussion Logan Breed, Partner, Hogan Lovells Hanno Kaiser, Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP Mark S. Popofsky, Partner, Ropes & Gray, LLP Carl Shapiro, Transamerica Professor of Business Strategy, University of California at Berkeley, Walter A. Haas School of Business Hill Wellford III, Partner, Bingham McCutchen LLP
5:00 p.m.	Q&A
5:20 p.m.	Closing Remarks: Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division Renata B. Hesse

Additional participants will be added as they are confirmed. The views expressed at the workshop will not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice or the Federal Trade Commission.

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Public Comments

PAEW-0001 Serflaten, Larry

PAEW-0002 Carrier, Michael A. (Rutgers Law School-Camden)

PAEW-0003 Yarus, S.

PAEW-0004 Cheng, Lee C. (Newegg Inc.)

PAEW-0005 Minsk, Alan

PAEW-0006 Nutter, Art (TAEUS International Corp.)

PAEW-0007 Pires de Carvalho, Nuno

PAEW-0008 Snyder, Martin (Main Sequence Technology, Inc.)

PAEW-0009 Professional Investors Alliance

PAEW-0010 Leff, Barry (IPNav)

PAEW-0011 The American Antitrust Institute

PAEW-0012 Barnes & Noble, Inc.

PAEW-0013 Nelson, Curt (EDC: Entrepreneurial Development Center)

PAEW-0014 Renaud, Christian (StartupCity Des Moines)

PAEW-0015 Risch, Michael

PAEW-0016 Dassault Systèmes

PAEW-0017 Valbuena, Cristian (Artsnapper)

PAEW-0018 Reed, Tucker (Downtown Brooklyn Partnership)

PAEW-0019 Johnson, Justin (No Sweat)

PAEW-0020 Bohnen, Teresa (St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce)

PAEW-0021 Segerblom, Tick (Nevada State Senate)

PAEW-0022 Caron, Joan M., PhD

PAEW-0023 Cipes, Jon (Creative Fuel)

PAEW-0024 Peirce, Adam (Stonepier)

PAEW-0025 Haynes, Morse (Monahans EDC)

PAEW-0026 Reiswig, Marilyn (Perryton - Ochilitree Chamber (Texas))

PAEW-0027 Russo, Betty (Polk County Economic & Industrial Development Corporation)

PAEW-0028 Hardy, Sheryl

PAEW-0029 Guenzel, Roxanne (South Padre Island Chamber of Commerce)

PAEW-0030 O'Brien, Richard (American Association of Advertising Agencies)

PAEW-0031 Olsen, Kristine (Dalhart Area Chamber of Commerce)

PAEW-0032 Valentino, Jim (James Roberts Creative)

PAEW-0033 Lemster, Bryan (Halcyon Innovation, LLC)

PAEW-0034 Carrier, Michael A. (Rutgers School of Law-Camden)

PAEW-0035 Feldman, Robin

PAEW-0036 Melius, Niels J. (Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law)

PAEW-0037 SAS Institute Inc., Acushnet Company, Limelight Networks, Newegg Inc., Safeway Inc., Sensus USA, Inc. and ABBYY USA Software House, Inc.

PAEW-0038 McCorkle, Arna (Fort Stockton, Texas Chamber of Commerce)

PAEW-0039 Consumer Electronics Association

PAEW-0040 Joslove, Scott K. (Texas Hotel & Lodging Association)

PAEW-0041 Washington Legal Foundation (WLF)

PAEW-0042 Microsoft Corporation

PAEW-0043 Verizon Communications Inc. and the United States Telecom Association (USTelecom)

PAEW-0044 MOSAID Technologies Incorporated

PAEW-0045 The Internet Association

PAEW-0046 American Intellectual Property Law Association

PAEW-0047 Engine Advocacy

PAEW-0048 Internet Retailers

PAEW-0049 Google, Blackberry, Earthlink, and Red Hat

PAEW-0050 Application Developers Alliance

PAEW-0051 Retail Industry Leaders Association's (RILA's)

PAEW-0052 The Innovation Alliance
Letter to the GAO: Comments of the Innovation Alliance April 20, 2012
Letter to the GAO: Study of Litigation for Non-Practicing Entities Under Section 34 of the America Invents Act - Comments of the Innovation Alliance March 1, 2013

PAEW-0053 Reiswig, Marilyn (Perryton - Ochilitree Chamber (Texas))

PAEW-0054 Rackspace

PAEW-0055 Coalition for Patent Fairness

PAEW-0056 Ewing, Tom

PAEW-0057 National Retail Federation

PAEW-0058 Software & Information Industry Association

PAEW-0059 Korea Semiconductor Industry Association

PAEW-0060 Friend, David (Carbonite, Inc.)

PAEW-0061 Yen, Mallun (RPX Corporation)

PAEW-0062 Valdez, John

PAEW-0063 MetroPCS Wireless, Inc.

PAEW-0064 Electronic Frontier Foundation

PAEW-0065 Computer & Communications Industry Association

PAEW-0066 Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, and Adobe Systems, Inc.

PAEW-0067 Wolfram, Richard

PAEW-0068 Food Marketing Institute and the National Restaurant Association

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Instructions for Submitting Comments

The Department of Justice and the FTC welcome written comments from the public both before and after the workshop. The deadline for submitting public comments has been extended to April 5, 2013. Comments received by this date will be posted on this website.

Comments should be e-mailed to ATR.LPS-PAEPublicComments@usdoj.gov and include “Comment” in the subject line. Electronic submissions must include the original source file (for example, Word, WordPerfect, PowerPoint, or Excel). Submissions in PDF only will not be accepted.

Note: The size of an e-mail, including all attachments, cannot exceed 10 MB. Accordingly, electronic documents that are voluminous should be submitted to the Antitrust Division using appropriate media (such as CD) to:

Legal Policy Section
Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
450 5th Street NW, Suite 11700
Washington, DC 20001

Privacy and confidentiality: Written submissions and the identity of the submitter may be disclosed, reproduced, and distributed by publication and/or posting on the Department of Justice or FTC websites, at the discretion of the Department of Justice or the FTC. Information that is submitted in connection with this workshop cannot be kept confidential by the Department of Justice or the FTC. Written submissions should not include any information that the submitting person wants to keep confidential.

Contact for submissions: For more information on making submissions, contact the Antitrust Division at
ATR.LPS-PAEPublicComments@usdoj.gov.

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Registration for the Workshop

The workshop is free and open to the public. Due to space constraints, we have closed registration for the event. If you would like to be added to a waitlist for registration, send an e-mail to ATR.LPS-PAEWorkshopRSVP@usdoj.gov and we will notify you if space becomes available. Please include “RSVP” in the subject line.

In addition, the workshop will be webcast for those who are unable to attend in person.

Because we cannot predict actual attendance, it is possible that there will be space on the day of the event.

Reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities are available upon request. Requests should be submitted by e-mail to skonstandt@ftc.gov or by calling Samantha Konstandt at 202-326-3348. Requests should be made in advance. Please include a detailed description of the accommodation needed, and provide contact information.