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Special Issue Report on the 21st Annual Intellectual Property Law Course - April 29, 2008

The Newsletter Committee has published the newsletter reporting on the 21st Annual Intellectual Property Law Course that was held in March in Austin, Texas. Check it out by clicking on this link or going to the newsletter page.

Should an innocent defendant sued by the RIAA be able to recover their attorney fees as the prevailing party? - March 24, 2008

We've all read the reports about the RIAA, or other music industry plaintiffs, suing grandparents, parents, roommates, and others – the internet account subscriber – for copyright infringement. Frequently, these defendants had no idea anybody was using their internet account to download music from a peer-to-peer file sharing service. Music industry plaintiffs expect that even innocent defendants will settle out of court for a few thousand dollars rather than spend tens of thousands of dollars defending themselves because even innocent defendants who win on the merits have virtually no chance of recovering their attorney fees.

March 24th, the Gunn & Lee P.C., firm announced that they had filed a pro bono Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court to address this issue. As Ted Lee, firm owner and 2007-2008 Chairman of the IP Law Section explains, "It deals with the downloading of music. If an innocent person is sued for copyright infringement by the recording industry, can the innocent person recover their attorney fees as a prevailing party? Personally, I think this is a hot issue."

Mr. Lee adds "While it is always a long shot on getting a writ granted, our odds are probably a little better because of the conflict in the circuits."

The petition, a Word document, can be read here.

Welcome to the new redesigned State Bar Of Texas Intellectual Property Law Section web site. This website has been redesigned from the ground up, retaining the familiar theme of the past site, but introducing a more direct navigation structure. Further, the new web site is FireFox friendly.

Across the top of each page is a navigation link bar that takes you to the various pages of this site.

• The HOME link returns you to this main page of the web site.
• The SECTION link takes you to a page providing information about the Section. Here you will find the names and contact information for the Section's officers and Council, along with a list of the various committees and their chairs.
• The AWARDS link takes you to the page about the awards and scholarships the Section gives gives out each year during the State Bar Annual Meeting.
• The CLE SEMINARS link takes you to the page containing information about upcoming Section sponsored CLE activities.
• The NEWSLETTER link takes you to the current and past newsletters produced by the Section's Newsletter Committee.
• The USEFUL LINKS link takes you to a page of links to other web sites. Here you will find links to various governmental sites of use to IP practitioners, along with a host of other sites that many practitioners should find useful or interesting.

Along the left side of the each page is a set of links to items of importance. These include links to the application forms for nominating inventors and scholarship candidates, along with information about the IP Law Writing Contest. There are links to the State Bar and the MyTexasBar sites.

This web site will be evolving and changing. The Web Site Committee will be making changes and addition to this site regularly. Please come back often.

Upcoming Nomination and Writing Contest Deadlines:

Nominations for Texas Inventor Of The Year must be submitted by March 28, 2008. Nominations must be submitted electronically. Nomination forms are available in DOC and PDF formats.

Nominations for the Women & Minorities Scholarship must be postmarked by May 1, 2008. Nomination forms are available in DOC and PDF formats.

Submissions for the IP Law Writing Contest must be submitted by May 15, 2008. Specific information is available here.

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