| Program | |
| Wednesday, April 2 | |
| 6:30 P.M. | Reception gathering |
| 7:15 | Preconference dinner |
| Thursday, April 3 (Academic Sessions) | |
| 8:50 A.M. | Welcome and overview Robert A. Eisenbeis, Senior Vice President and Director of Research, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Lissa L. Broome, Director, Center for Banking and Finance, School of Law, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| 9:00 | PAPER I: Controlling Opportunistic and Anti-Competitive Intellectual Property Litigation  |
| Chair: | Paula Tkac, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta |
| Presenter: | Michael J. Meurer, Boston University, Massachusetts Presentation  |
| Discussant: | Bruce Lehmann, University of California, San Diego Presentation |
| 10:30 | Break |
| 10:45 | PAPER II: Profitable Innovation without Patent Protection: The Case of Derivatives |
| Chair: | Gerald P. Dwyer Jr., Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta |
| Presenter: | Enrique Schroth, Ecoles des HEC, University of Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Discussant: | Albert S. Kyle, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina |
| 12:15 P.M. | Luncheon |
| 1:30 | PAPER III: Claimable Aspects of Software-Implemented Business Methods |
| Chair: | Larry Wall, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta |
| Presenter: | Andrew Chin, University of North Carolina School of Law, Chapel Hill Presentation |
| Discussant: | Margo Bagley, Emory University, Atlanta Presentation |
| 3:00 | Break |
| 3:30 | PAPER IV: Towards an Integrated Theory of Intellectual Property |
| Chair: | Stephen D. Smith, H. Talmage Dobbs Jr. Chair in Finance, Georgia State University, Atlanta |
| Presenter: | Gideon Parchomovsky, Fordham Law School, New York |
| Discussant: | Scott Baker, University of North Carolina School of Law, Chapel Hill |
| 5:00 | Adjourn Meeting |
| 6:45 | Reception |
| 7:30 | Dinner Welcome Jack Guynn, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta |
| Friday, April 4 (Policy Sessions—Day One) | |
| 8:00 A.M. | Introduction of speaker Jack Guynn |
| Keynote speaker, by videoconference: Alan Greenspan, Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, D.C. |
|
| 9:30 | POLICY SESSION I: U.S. versus International Approaches to Business Method Patents |
| This session lays out the current landscape of patent and copyright law as it applies to business methods and processes. Of particular interest will be a comparison of the evolving approaches in the United States and the rest of the world with respect to legal principles that govern the granting and the validity of patents, such as the definition of prior art, novelty, inventive step (nonobviousness), industrial applicability (utility), sufficiency of disclosure, and the structure and interpretation of claims. | |
| Paper: | An Overview of the International Law of Business Method Patents  |
| Moderator: | Robert Hart, British Computer Society, Liverpool, United Kingdom Presentation Report |
| Presenter: | John Conley, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Presentation |
| Discussants: | Mark Kesslen, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., New York Jon Santamauro, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Arlington, Virginia Michael Spence, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom |
| 11:00 | Break |
| 11:15 | POLICY SESSION II: Business Method Patents and Business Strategy |
| The growth in the number of business method patents raises the question of their likely impact on competitive behavior and business strategy in the financial services industry. Are the trends in the non-business methods patent realm different from the preliminary inferences about behavior in financial services? If there are differences in financial services firms’ approaches to patents, how might these approaches affect the functioning and structure of the financial services industry? Who has been acquiring business method patents and are there trends in these acquisitions that may prove worrisome? | |
| Paper: | The Two-Edged Sword: The Competitive Implications of Financial Patents |
| Moderator: | Bradley Ipema, Wachovia Corporation, Charlotte, North Carolina |
| Presenter: | Josh Lerner, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts Presentation |
| Discussants: | Charles Glick, Bank One, Chicago George Marcou, Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, Washington, DC |
| 1:00 P.M. | Luncheon |
| 2:00 | Adjourn for the afternoon |
| 6:30 | Reception |
| 7:15 | Dinner |
| Saturday, April 5 (Policy Session—Day Two) | |
| 8:30 A.M. | SESSION III: Business Method Patents and Innovation |
| What is the likely impact of business method patents on Wall Street and financial services more generally? Is there anything to worry about, anything that is different or special in the business methods area compared with the broader patent environment? Should the judicial process be more responsive to business and economic needs and practices? Would alternative processes for patent approval be better, or more in the public interest? | |
| Paper: | The Uninvited Guest: Patents on Wall Street |
| Moderator: | Michael Springs, Bank of America, Charlotte, North Carolina |
| Presenter: | Robert Merges, University of California, Berkeley Presentation |
| Discussants: | Barbara Simons, Association for Computing Machinery, Palo Alto, California John Squires, Goldman Sachs, Inc., New York Presentation |
| 10:00 | Break |
| 10:15 | SESSION IV: Public Policy Implications of Business Method Patenting |
| Are there identifiable deficiencies in the patent process as it applies to business methods patents that suggest the need for reform, and where might reform be most desirable and feasible? Are there deficiencies in the current methods for collecting and processing information on prior art as it relates to business processes that suggest needed reforms within the patent office itself? Does the process create incentives for potential applicants to capitalize on asymmetric information between the applicant and patent office? Would a two-stage process create better incentives? Are there better ways to bring more knowledgeable people into the patenting process? | |
| Paper: | Business Method Patents and Innovation |
| Moderator: | Roger Ferguson, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, D.C. |
| Presenter: | Bronwyn Hall, University of California, Berkeley Presentation |
| Discussants: | Todd Dickinson, Howrey Simon Arnold & White, Washington, D.C. Alec French, Minority Counsel, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, Washington, D.C. William Young, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court, Boston, Massachusetts |
| Noon | Luncheon |
| 2:00 P.M. | Adjourn conference |