The Sedona Conference Working Groups 9 & 10 Joint Annual Meeting 2023

Date: 
Tuesday, May 16, 2023 - 8:30am to Wednesday, May 17, 2023 - 1:00pm

Time Zone:

Pacific Daylight Time

Location:

The Benson hotel, Portland, Oregon 

Meeting Description: 

The Sedona Conference Working Groups 9 &10 Joint Annual Meeting will take place at The Benson hotel in Portland, Oregon, on Tuesday-Wednesday, May 16-17, 2023. A welcome reception will be held in the evening of Monday, May 15, from 5:30-7:30 pm.

The primary focus of this meeting will be for our current WG9 and 10 drafting teams to lead a document-based dialogue to obtain member comment and advance the following draft commentaries and project charters toward publication for public comment:

  • Cross-Border Discovery Issues in Patent and Trade Secret Litigation, Stage Three
  • Case Management of Patent Damages and Remedies, Second Edition
  • United Framework for Analysis of Section 101 Patent Eligibility Determinations
  • The Evolving Relationship Between Federal Courts and Administrative Agencies

We will highlight the Commentaries we have published since our last Annual Meeting in Boston in June 2022 and we will engage in dialogue with the working group membership about what topics we should pursue via brainstorming groups and drafting teams over the next year. To close the Meeting, we will hear from a Judicial Roundtable, comprised of some of our Judicial Advisors who have graciously and generously supported Sedona’s Working Group efforts to date.

Please help us ensure that each of our forthcoming publications reflect the consensus, nonpartisan approach of The Sedona Conference, and join the dialogue!

Hotel Reservation Information

We have arranged for a very favorable group rate The Benson of $184 per night (plus tax) for a limited block of rooms on the evenings of May 15 & 16. Some rooms will be available at the Government Rate for WG9 & 10 members who are government employees. The group rate will be available for 3 days preceding and 3 days following the dates of the room block, subject to standard guestroom availability. The Benson will be holding the block of rooms until April 17, 2023, after which any unsold rooms will be released for sale to the general public. After April 17, rooms will be subject to availability. Reservation information will be provided in your meeting registration confirmation email.

CLE

The Sedona Conference will seek CLE accreditation for this meeting in selected jurisdictions (except Virginia), as dictated by attendance.

In order to attend the meeting, you will need to be a current member of WG9 or WG10. Please become a member by signing up for a Working Group Series (WGS) membership. Once a WGS member, one is eligible to become a member and take part in the activities of all Working Groups, including WG9 and WG10.

We hope you can join us in May in Portland!

WG9/10 Annual Meeting 2023 Agenda

Time Session Panelists
  Monday, May 15, 2023 (all times PDT)  
5:30 — 7:30 Evening Welcome Reception  
  Tuesday, May 16, 2023 (all times PDT)  
7:30 — 8:30 Breakfast & Sign-in  
8:30 — 8:45 Welcome & Introductions
8:45 — 10:00 [Panel 1] Cross-Border Discovery Issues in Patent and Trade Secret Casses (Stage 3)
  The Joint WG10 and WG12 Commentary on Cross-Border Discovery in U.S. Patent and Trade Secret Cases drafting team was launched in 2019. Stage One of the draft Commentary was brought to publication for public comment in May 2021. Stage Two of the draft Commentary was a focus of dialogue at the WG12 Annual Meeting in Reston, Virginia, in September 2022; the WG9&10 Joint Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, in June 2022; the WG12 Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, in December 2021; and the WG9&10 Joint Annual Meeting, Online, in November 2021. Stage Three, which is the subject of dialogue at this Portland meeting, is focusing on, among other topics, privilege issues relating to cross-border discovery and foreign enforcement of discovery orders.  
10:00 — 10:15 Morning Break  
10:15 — 11:30 [Panel 2] Unified Patent Court
  Under the soon-to-be-introduced Unified Patent Court (UPC) system with a current start date of June 1, 2023, a new patent jurisdiction will arise potentially spanning the whole of the European Union (EU). The advantages are obvious: more cost-efficient litigation with the chance of obtaining an EU-wide injunction. Nevertheless, as with all new laws and regulations (let alone courts), there will be significant uncertainty around the first pending proceedings and how they will be managed by the incipient UPC. To mitigate these uncertainties, judges and lawyers need not only consider a whole new set of provisions and rules but also the existing case law under the different current European patent law regimes to better understand how to interpret the new rules and resolve the disputes in an efficient, fair and equitable manner. The Framework for Analysis for the Efficient Resolution of Disputes before the Forthcoming European Unified Patent Court addresses these topics and will serve in this session as a vehicle for prompting dialogue with the WG 9/10 membership.  
11:30 — 1:00 Lunch  
1:00 — 2:30 [Panel 3] In-House Panel
  Please check back soon for panel description.  
2:30 — 2:45 Afternoon Break  
2:45 — 4:00 [Panel 4] Case Management of Patent Damages and Remedies Issues
  This panel will provide an update on its work on this topic and seek input from membership. Since Boston in June 2022, the drafting team has been updating its Commentary on Case Management of Patent Damages and Remedies Issues which is the second paper following The Sedona Conference’s original work, Commentary on Patent Reasonable Royalty Determinations. The current Commentary presents principles and best practices for addressing and managing patent damages and remedies issues as they arise in the various stages of litigation, including:
  • pretrial management of patent damages and remedies issues: fact discovery; expert discovery; and damages hearings
  • trial management of patent damages and remedies issues: trial time allocation; bifurcation of liability and damages for discovery or trial; and jury instructions and jury verdict forms; and
  • posttrial management of patent damages and remedies issues: injunctions, ongoing royalties, and attorneys’ fees
  
4:00 — 5:30 [Panel 5] Unified Framework for Analysis of Section 101 Patent Eligibility Determinations
  In October 2022, due to its collective effort, a subgroup of The Sedona Conference’s Working
Group 10 on Patent Litigation Best Practices submitted a set of proposed revisions to the USPTO Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance issued on January 7, 2019. These proposed revisions were specifically submitted in response to a request from the USPTO. This subgroup was formed of representatives of a variety of key stakeholders in the U.S. patent litigation system (acting in their personal capacities) and each of these individuals well understood the Sedona consensus, non-partisan spirit. Due to time constraints, however, this document did not benefit from the review of The Sedona Conference’s entire WG10 membership or the WG10 Steering Committee. This panel will describe the subgroup’s work, seek member feedback and engage in dialogue on whether a drafting team should be formed to proceed with a Commentary on this topic. 		 
5:30 — 7:00 Reception (guests invited)  
     
  Wednesday, May 17, 2023 (all times PDT)  
7:30 — 8:30 Breakfast & Sign-in  
8:30 — 10:00 [Panel 6] Overview of Sedona WG9 & 10 2022-23 Commentaries and Idea Generation for New Brainstorming Groups and Commentaries
  A lot has happened since we last met as a group in Boston in June 2022. And the Working Groups must again identify future projects of sufficient value and interest to warrant the attention and resources of WGs 9 and 10 membership. In this session, we’ll briefly highlight the content published over the last year. We’ll then turn our attention to identifying future projects that warrant development going forward, starting with new brainstorming groups.  
10:00 — 10:30 Morning Break  
10:30 — 11:45 [Panel 7] The Evolving Relationship Between Federal Courts and Administrative Agencies
  The focus of this session is to seek dialogue on the current version of the WG10 Commentary on The Evolving Relationship Between Federal Courts and Administrative Agencies. This Commentary seeks to explore various issues that arise from related proceedings in Federal District and Appellate Courts, before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and Section 337 investigations at the International Trade Commission (ITC). Issues explored in this Commentary include stays of litigation, accelerated and conflicting trial scheduling, estoppel, ANDA provisions, standing, and availability of judicial review.  
11:45 — 1:00 [Panel 8] Judicial Roundtable
  Please check back soon for panel description.  
1:00 — 1:15 Closing Statements
1:15 — 2:15 Grab-&-Go Lunch (provided)  

Panel Moderator*

Date: 
Monday, May 15, 2023 - 5:30pm to Wednesday, May 17, 2023 - 2:15pm