McAndrews Held & Malloy Attorney Christopher V. Carani to Moderate AIPPI Panel in Rio de Janeiro
10.01.15
McAndrews, Held & Malloy Shareholder Christopher V. Carani will moderate the 2015 AIPPI World Congress panel, “Industrial designs: form over function?” on October 13, 2015, in Rio de Janeiro.
Carani, a leading authority in the field of design law, will moderate a panel of three IP professionals from around the world:
- Lili Wu, CCPIT Patent & Trademark Law Office – Peoples Republic of China
- Lucas Martins Gaiarsa, Gaiarsa & Meyer Proprieade Intelectual – Brazil
- Sara Ashby, Redd Solicitors LLP – United Kingdom
“Industrial designs: form over function?” is the fourth of 11 panels in the 2015 AIPPI World Congress. The speakers will discuss how “industrial designs render appealing products that are also functional, thereby increasing their marketability. In principle, while functional designs may be protected in many jurisdictions, designs dictated exclusively by the technical function of the product may be excluded from protection.” Carani, along with the panelists, will explore IP protection available for functional designs in certain jurisdictions, and the requirements for the scope of such protection.
For more information about the event, or to register, 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.