AIPLA Committee Report

DATE: October, 2011 MEETING: Annual

COMMITTEE NAME: Alternative Dispute Resolution

COMMITTEE LEADERSHIP: Harrie Samaras, Chair; Stephen Durant, Vice Chair

SUBCOMMITTEES: Greg Whitehair, Chair Microsite Subcommittee

DISCUSS THE OVERALL MISSION OF THE COMMITTEE AS IT RELATES TO AIPLA’s VISION, MISSION, and VALUES: The overall mission of the Committee will be to perform chosen activities in a manner that comports with AIPLA’s values in order to implement AIPLA’s mission and, thus, fulfill AIPLA’s vision.

DISCUSS THE COMMITTEES ACTIVITIES RELATED TO ADVOCACY, PLEASE ALSO INCLUDE COOPERATION WITH OTHER COMMITTEES TO SUPPORT THESE ACTIVITIES, if any: The Committee’s activities related to advocacy have been coordinated by its chair and vice-chair. In the most recent past, those activities have included providing comments in response to a Federal Register Notice of Inquiry from the U.S. Trademark Office regarding the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s participation in settlement discussions. We collaborated with the Trademark Committee in preparing this response on AIPLA’s behalf.

DISCUSS THE COMMITTEES ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PUBLIC EDUCATION, PLEASE ALSO INCLUDE COOPERATION WITH OTHER COMMITTEES TO SUPPORT THESE ACTIVITIES, if any: The Committee has not performed activities directed solely to public education regarding the “daily value” of IP, rather it has focused on education relating to the use of ADR in IP cases. At the AIPLA 2011 Spring Meeting in San Francisco, the Committee presented a panel of three experienced arbitrators who spoke on the topics: Avoiding Unauthorized Practice of Law in Jurisdictions in which Attorney Not Admitted; Ethics in Negotiation; and Identifying Lawsuits that Trigger Arbitration. At the 2011 Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. the Committee in collaboration with the Corporate Practice Committee will present a 1.5 hour CLE program entitled, ‘What Goes Around Comes Around – How to Efficiently and Effectively Resolve Recurring Disputes with the Same Party’.

DISCUSS THE COMMITTEES ACTIVITIES RELATED TO MEMBER SERVICE, PLEASE ALSO INCLUDE COOPERATION WITH OTHER COMMITTEES TO SUPPORT THESE ACTIVITIES, if any: The Committee provides member services through its CLE programs and maintaining relevant and current content on its website.

1 DISCUSS THE COMMITTEES ACTIVITIES RELATED TO GLOBAL OUTREACH, PLEASE ALSO INCLUDE COOPERATION WITH OTHER COMMITTEES TO SUPPORT THESE ACTIVITIES, if any: In the past few years, and even this year, there have been significant changes in procedural rules of International ADR providers and in document exchange rules/guidelines relating to international arbitration. The committee is considering developing a CLE program to discuss such changes and the practical implications for conducting international arbitrations. This may be accomplished by engaging international arbitration practitioners and representative from international ADR providers. We have already announced such changes to Committee members through email and provided links to the new rules on the Committee’s microsite. The Committee will also consider having a representative from the International Mediation Institute speak on a teleconference on how to become IMI certified as a mediator and how the IMI can be useful for locating mediators in the United States and abroad.

The Committee would consider collaborating with the litigation committee and internationally focused committees on these activities.