I hope you all had a nice summer and are comfortably involved in your post-Labor Day routines.

While we are endeavoring to get back to in-person meetings as soon as practically possible, we will remain largely remote for the foreseeable future as we continue to navigate the ongoing COVID-19 situation. On this note, we have decided to defer our annual Judges dinner for another year.

With that said, we are continuing in earnest planning virtual events and pursuing other initiatives. Our Case Law Committee remains active and is holding an event at the end of September discussing Minerva v. Hologic Supreme Court decision and its implications relating to assignor estoppel. Our PCT seminar is being planned for the end of October. We will have our Invented Here! event in November. Our Trademark and Unfair Competition Law Committee is planning an event with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to discuss the Trademark Modernization Act. Other events are in the works.

Additionally, our new pro bono service award nomination process is well underway. If you have not done so already, please submit your nominations as soon as possible here. The winner will be announced at our annual meeting December.

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Elizabeth L. Dougherty, Eastern Regional Outreach Director of the Office of the Under Secretary and Director at the USPTO. We had a good discussion about how BPLA and the USPTO can engage with each other through the Outreach office to support our respective initiatives and educational programs. I am pleased that following this discussion the USPTO is supporting our Invented Here! event, working with us to organize an educational speaker session at our annual meeting in December (details to follow) and connecting us with prospective members from other organizations.

In 2019, we expanded our membership structure to allow foreign IP law professionals to join the BPLA. Since that time, we have seen this membership class grow. Our transition to virtual meetings has facilitated this growth as we have seen foreign counsel sponsoring and attending events and enriching our discussions. At our annual IP symposium, we had a panel of members from Mewburn Ellis in the UK provide a session on EPO opposition proceedings and other firms have inquired about being involved next year. We have also had regular contributions to our newsletters, including in this issue where we have articles on the doctrine of equivalents in the UK and patent term extension in Brazil. These are welcome developments. Consider talking about the BPLA with your foreign counsel colleagues. Invite them to attend events and explore membership.

In closing, I wish to note that the BPLA will soon kick off the process of selecting new committee co-chairs for the 2022 programming year. If you have an interest in serving as a co-chair, please let us know with an email to admin@bpla.org.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to our association.