David J. Kappos

David J. Kappos, former undersecretary of commerce and former director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), will deliver the keynote address at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law’s fifth annual U.S. Supreme Court Intellectual Property Review (SCIPR) on September 12, 2014.

Kappos will address the topic “Stalemate or Statesmen? What Is Needed to Move Forward Constructively with the Balancing of America’s IP System.” The one-day conference will be held from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the law school, 565 West Adams Street (between Clinton and Jefferson streets) in Chicago.

IIT Chicago-Kent’s U.S. Supreme Court IP Review is the only conference in the country focused exclusively on intellectual property cases before the Supreme Court. This past term, the court heard a record 10 intellectual property–related cases, the most in its history, including important cases concerning software patents and TV broadcasts over the Internet.

The annual program draws leading members of the U.S. Supreme Court bar, intellectual property practice, academia, and the judiciary. Presenters include many of the nation’s top intellectual property scholars and Supreme Court litigators. Participants in this year’s conference will review intellectual property cases decided in the 2013–14 U.S. Supreme Court term and examine cases on the docket for the next session.

Kappos, currently a partner at Cravath Swaine and Moore LLP, is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost leaders in the field of intellectual property, including intellectual property management and strategy, commercialization and enforcement of innovation-based assets, and the development of global intellectual property norms, laws, and practices.

Prior to joining Cravath, Kappos served from 2009 to 2013 as undersecretary of commerce and director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As director of the USPTO, Kappos led the agency in re-engineering its management and operational systems as well as its engagement with the global innovation community. He was also instrumental in achieving passage and implementation of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, signed into law by President Obama in September 2011.

Prior to leading the USPTO, Kappos held several executive posts in the legal department of IBM, the world’s largest patent holder. From 2003 to 2009, he served as the company’s vice president and assistant general counsel for intellectual property. During more than 25 years at IBM, Kappos also served as litigation counsel and Asia Pacific IP counsel, based in Tokyo, where he led all aspects of intellectual property protection, including licensing, transactions support, and mergers and acquisitions activity, for the Asia/Pacific region.

Kappos graduated summa cum laude with an undergraduate degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Davis. He earned his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990.

General registration for the conference is $35; $15 for non–IIT Chicago-Kent academics; and free to all law students and to IIT Chicago-Kent faculty. For more information or to register, please contact Patricia O’Neal at 312.906.5128 or ipconference@kentlaw.iit.edu or visit the website.