McAndrews Held & Malloy Attorney Christopher V. Carani Appointed as Chair of AIPPI’s Standing Committee on Designs
09.22.15
McAndrews, Held & Malloy Shareholder Christopher V. Carani was appointed as Chair of the Standing Committee on Designs of the Switzerland-based Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle’s (AIPPI).
Carani, a leading voice and authority in the field of IP design, will serve alongside Ruth Almaraz (Co-Chair) of Spain, and Sarah Ashby (Secretary) of the United Kingdom. As Chair of this 17-member, international committee, Carani will oversee the group’s recommendations to AIPPI on policy and legal frameworks relating to designs, including reviewing policy initiatives, proposed legislative changes and judicial decisions. The committee will also monitor the design-related agenda and work of the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market and other organizations, and advise if any developments merit an AIPPI position.
AIPPI is an organization whose goal is to develop and improve the various facets of intellectual property on an international and national basis. It achieves this by monitoring and conducting studies on existing national laws and proposes measures that can create harmony between intellectual property laws internationally. It has multiple committees, making up nearly 300 in membership, which serve as the decision-making body of AIPPI by helping propose new measures.
For more information about AIPPI and its committees click here.
Christopher V. Carani, Esq. practices in all areas of intellectual property. He is a leading voice and internationally recognized in the field of Design IP (design patents, trade dress and copyrights), having litigated numerous design disputes, and published and lectured extensively on the topic. He represents some of the world’s most design centric companies, including the top filer of U.S. design patents. He counsels a wide range of clients on strategic design protection and enforcement issues, often called upon to render infringement, validity and design-around opinions. Carani has worked with clients securing over 2,000 design rights, both in the U.S and in over 70 countries around the world. He is the current chair of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property Design Rights Committee and the immediate past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Design Rights Committee, and the past chair of the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s Committee on Industrial Designs. He has litigated numerous disputes regarding design rights and has served as a legal consultant and expert witness in design law cases in a wide range of industries, including consumer electronics and accessories, consumer retail products, furniture, medical devices, apparel, footwear, and sporting goods, to name a few. In addition, Carani has authored amicus briefs for landmark U.S. design patent cases, such as Egyptian Goddess v. Swisa, Lawman Armor Corp. v. Winner Int’l LLC, Calmar, Inc. v. Arminak & Assoc. and Richardson v. Stanley Works, Inc. Carani earned an engineering degree from Marquette University and a law degree from the University of Chicago, and went on to serve as a law clerk to the Honorable Rebecca Pallmeyer at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He is a registered patent attorney and licensed to practice before the USPTO.
Carani is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Northwestern University School of Law teaching intellectual property law. He is a frequent contributor to CNN on intellectual property law issues, and is often called upon to provide commentary to other major media outlets, including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, NPR, PBS TV, CNBC TV, BBC, Bloomberg TV, and Reuters. Away from the law, Chris is a studied jazz musician who plays upright bass on the Chicago jazz circuit. Follow Carani (@ccarani) on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccarani.