McAndrews Shareholder Christopher V. Carani to Present on Design Patent Law at the Kansas Bar Association’s 2014 Midwest Intellectual Property Institute
04.14.14
McAndrews, Held & Malloy shareholder Christopher V. Carani has been invited to speak at the Kansas Bar Association’s 2014 Midwest Intellectual Property Institute in Overland Park, Kansas, May 2, 2014. Attendees can earn 7.0 CLE credit hours, including 1.0 hour of ethics and professionalism in Kansas and Missouri.
After Apple v. Samsung – the case the Wall Street Journal touted as “The Patent Trial of the Century” – companies and designers the world over took a second, hard look at design patents. In Carani’s session, titled “Industrial (Design) Revolution: From Spoons to Smartphones – Strategic Considerations for Design IP Protection and Enforcement,” he will discuss the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1871 design patent case Gorham v. White (spoons), recent Federal Circuit and district court case law, and the USPTO Patent Trial & Appeal Board’s first wave of IPR decisions addressing design patents under AIA. In addition to enforcement issues, Carani will also share cutting-edge concepts for protecting not only traditional industrial design, but also graphic user interfaces and icons.
Other event speakers and their presentations include:
- Susan Anthony, United States Patent & Trademark Office, “China Trademark & Domain Name Issues”
- Will Covey, United States Patent & Trademark Office, “Harmonization and Enforcement of United States Patent & Trademark Office Ethical Standards in the America Invents Act Era (Ethics)”
- John Whealan, George Washington University Law School, “Supreme Court Review of Patent Cases”
- Katherine C. Spelman , K&L Gates LLP, “Copyright Current Development”
- Dennis D. Crouch, University of Missouri School of Law, “Top Patent Law Issues of the Year”
- Thomas L. Irving, Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, “The American Patent Law Tsunamis Are Upon Us: AIA’s IPRs, CBMs, and PGRs: is Chief Judge Rader Correct to Call the Judges of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Death Squads Killing Intellectual Property Rights
Christopher V. Carani, Esq., counsels clients on a wide range of strategic design protection and enforcement issues. He is 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 and 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 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.