Markman Hearings and Claim Construction in Patent Litigation 2008

The Practising Law Institute (PLI) is hosting the above titled conference in New York City on July 9, 2008.  The conference is also available via live webcast.  The conference is chaired by Thomas L. Creel of the Law Office of Thomas L. Creel P.C..

Companies and their patent lawyers anxious to resolve the ever-increasing number of costly patent disputes must deal with the 1994 Supreme Court case Markman v. Westview Instruments, which was supposed to add speed and predictability to patent cases. In Markman, the high court held that “judges, not jurors, are the better suited to find the acquired meaning of patent terms.” After Markman, trial court judges started holding separate proceedings away from the jury - so called Markman hearings - to determine the scope of a patent’s claims. Thus, Markman hearings play a key and crucial role in the outcome of patent litigation and also in the drafting and prosecution of patent applications. Because there is no intermediate appeal, Markman has added a whole new level of lawyering, cost, delay and, some say, uncertainty to patent litigation.

What You Will Learn

• Overview of Markman and its progeny; the promises and the realities of Markman in practice
• Claim construction hearing procedure, strategies and tactics
• New! How to prepare and prosecute patent applications to obtain appropriate claim construction
• Discovery, timing, alternatives and challenges in multi-patent and multi-party cases
• A demonstration of an actual hearing
• Evidentiary considerations and the use of demonstratives and other extrinsic evidence
• Use of experts, inventors and masters
• Claim construction from an appellate perspective
• After the Markman hearing - effect on further trial proceedings
• Special Feature! How judges from around the nation view Markman hearings and their suggestions for effective advocacy

More information and registration are available here.