Trademark Law CLE Course Catalog

Peter Afrasiabi, an experienced intellectual property lawyer and litigator, gives a comprehensive overview of intellectual property rights and how the four key legal frameworks – copyright, trademark, patent and trade secrets – are relevant to all lawyers. At the end of the presentation, you’ll not only be able to spot intellectual property issues when they arise in your practice but have a good sense of how to deal with them, and also when you may want to bring in an expert to provide additional advice or assistance.

Law firms on the cutting edge of combining internal law firm data with public datasets will describe their use cases and share their secrets for improving substantive work-product and developing new business. We’ll discuss how firms have married state and federal litigation dockets, patent and trademark prosecution dockets, new lawsuit feeds, and public and private data on deals (e.g., M&A) — all to build workflows for: (1) analytics and research (2) better RFPs, (3) experience databases, and (4) user-driven development.

These days, manufacturers of nearly every consumer product under the sun are catching false advertising claims. If you make a consumer-facing product, the odds are, litigation like this is not a matter of if but when, which means, false advertising litigation is just another business risk to be managed, mitigated, and optimized. This program takes a closer look at the landscape, and offers some practical advice and key considerations for how a business might implement some systems to manage this risk. Social media can be a powerful tool for companies to help build relationships with their customers and employees. However, with the benefits of this tool come corresponding risks. If your company distributes content on-line, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act can be your best friend -- and your worst enemy -- often at the same time. This program gives you the advice you need to prosecute or defend on-line copyright infringement claims.

Did the TV series “Battlestar Galactica” infringe on the copyrights owned by Lucasfilm in the movie “Star Wars”? Experienced intellectual property litigator Peter Afrasiabi reviews this famous case and several others where the copyright, trademark and right of publicity interests in “Star Wars” were litigated. Along the way, Peter provides an expert overview of copyright, trademark and right of publicity law that will be useful for all practitioners.

Using some examples of lawsuits involving Ford, Ferrari and other famous cars, this program review show courts have applied the standards for trade dress protection in the context of litigation over automobile designs.  The presenter also shares several important practice tips for litigating claims of trade dress infringement involving any type of product.

Law firms have ridden the uncertainty of the past two years to unprecedented success. The experiences weren’t universal, however, and market dynamics are starting to shift. In this seminar, we will explore how different segments of the market performed and which firms are best positioned to weather any upcoming changes to market dynamics.

-- Non-CLE Program -- Perhaps the hottest trend in legal tech at the moment involves contract automation and digital contracts. The partnership between legal expertise and artificial intelligence creates new opportunities for efficiency, accuracy, data analytics, and management of complex agreements. With this blending of technology and legal services, there will be ample opportunities for success for attorneys and knowledge professionals who understand how to adapt and specialize in these new professionals roles.

-- NON-CLE Program -- Knowledge management initiatives have proven to be a game-changer within firms and corporations over the years and legal technology has only enhanced this. Given the unique position of knowledge management professionals in their organizations, they are ideally positioned to evaluate legal technology solutions and steer their adoption in practice groups and legal departments. This session will offer insights from KM professionals on the way to a more efficient legal organization.

***This is a non-CLE seminar*** To better understand the shifting nature of these responsibilities, Corporate Counsel has conducted an exclusive survey with senior in-house counsels and legal leaders to gauge how their relationship with the board has changed over the last year. Our research also asked what role these senior in-house counsels now play in driving business results within their organization as well as how compliance, data privacy, cybersecurity and other issues now play into the decision-making process.