The Patent Conference is a cooperative effort among the University of Kansas School of Law, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, University of San Diego School of Law, and Boston College Law School to hold an annual conference where patent scholars in law, economics, management science, and other disciplines can share their research.
In 2010, the founders of PatCon—law professors David Olson, David Schwartz, Ted Sichelman and Andrew W. Torrance—realized that the growth and importance of research in the area of patents required an exclusive forum that would enable participants to share their research with other experts and explore links across the legal and business side of patents.
PatCon 2, hosted by Boston College Law School in May 2012, had more than 40 participants from across the country.
After growing rapidly during the Patent Conference's first two years in existence, attendance exceeded 200, setting a new high-water mark. Marquee events included an opening address by Judge Richard Linn of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (an unofficial supreme court of patent law), a star panel composed of Prof. Mark Lemley, James Malackowski, and Prof. David Abram, and a terrific debate between Judge Richard Posner and Prof. Richard Epstein. The rest of the conference consists of the latest scholarly research on patent law, with presentations from about 50 leading patent scholars. Here are the PatCon schedules for April 12 and April 13, 2013.
