Presenter: Dan L. Burk, University of California, Irvine School of Law

Date: Thursday, September 21, 2023
Time: Happy Hour 6:00 – 7:00 p.m., Presentation 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Location: Morrison & Foerster, 12531 High Bluff Dr., Ste. 100, San Diego, CA 92130.

This program qualifies for CLE credit.

U.S. patent law has almost entirely disregarded causation in determining inventorship, focusing on the mental act of conception, which is largely divorced from the physical reduction to practice of the invention.  Neither is U.S. patent law overly concerned with the causal antecedents of inventive conception.  Patent law seldom inquires into conceptive origins or influences, and with only a few exceptions, the act of conception stands peculiarly outside conventional time and space.  In this presentation, Professor Burk examines three identifiable exceptions to inventive causality, the role they play in determining inventorship, and their potential to shed some light on some current doctrinal puzzles.

—–

Dan L. Burk is Chancellor’s Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine, where he was a founding member of the law faculty, and teaches and writes in the areas of patent, copyright, and related areas.  He is the author of numerous works on the legal and societal impact of new technologies, including articles on Internet regulation, on the structure of the patent system, and on the economic analysis of intellectual property law.